


To Be A Teacher

by andipxndy



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Teacher AU, also many ships whoops, and many children, didn't get round to listing them all here lol, maybe i'll add as i go along, there are many teachers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-07 07:26:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 33,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15214112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andipxndy/pseuds/andipxndy
Summary: One year into teaching, Allison manages to snag a job at a small secondary school in Weston, where her best friend happens to work. Of course, whilst assimilating to the workplace and its general procedures, she manages to befriend multiple nice teachers... as well as clash with the not-as-nice Chemistry teacher across the corridor.Follow the teachers of Weston High as they make their ways through their teaching careers and interact with each other and the children they teach from day to day, dealing with surprises and issues along the way.After all, who said teaching was easy?





	1. New Teacher on the Block

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MolollyWrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MolollyWrites/gifts).



> This story was originally posted on my tumblr writing account (andipxndy-writes.tumblr.com) so feel free to check that out for some of my other writings.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allison Leister is a brand new teacher at Weston High School, in Weston, near Manchester. Though there's almost two weeks until the new school year starts, there's a lot for her to do, including getting to know some of the teachers. Though, she gets to know some of the friendlier teachers a lot faster than she anticipated.

Allison sighed as the cab pulled up in front of the block of flats, the driver turning back to her to announce that they had, in fact, arrived. The brunette glanced out of the window to confirmed this, and sent him a polite smile, digging through her purse and pulling out the correct amount of cash and handing it to him before climbing out of the large black car.

As soon as the driver had moved off, leaving the woman on the pavement, she made her way over to the main door. Pulling a small white card out of her back pocket, her eyes glanced through her glasses at the small numbers written on the sheet before she typed them into the keypad beside the door. Following a satisfying  _beep_  and _click_ , she pulled the door open and let herself in, making her way up to her flat.

Two weeks. That was how long Allison had been living in her new flat, all the way up in Manchester and far away from her usual home in West Essex. Still, the move from a town/village life to a city one wasn’t as strange as she’d thought it would be – it was a lot easier.

Now, the reason for her move was because of work – a new job. Something she’d been looking for over the past couple of months, and had been informed about by her best friend, Jodie. The one person who’d been her best friend from primary school until now, and (hopefully) for much longer. Her spunky redheaded best friend happened to work at a secondary school in Weston, a small town not too far from Manchester; one that had been opened barely a decade ago and was on its way up in terms of grades and reputation.

From what Allison had heard, the position for Biology teacher and Year 9B Form Tutor had opened up, and after a brief interview with the headteacher (who was kind of cool, in Allison’s opinion) she was awarded the job. Though, from what she’d heard, only one other person had applied for the job, and they’d screwed up the interview (Jodie’s report, not her own), so Allie had been practically secured the job. And as soon as she’d heard that she’d got the job, her old flat had gone up for sale, and she’d found another one in Manchester, moving into it within a month.

As soon as she’d got into her flat, she leaned back against the door with a heavy sigh, gripping her keys in her hand. The walk she’d just been on was nice, but she didn’t realise how  _long_  she’d been walking for until her feet started hurting and she had to call a cab to get home. That made her shake her head at herself.  _Honestly, Allison_. Walking slowly further into the apartment, she noticed that her laptop, which she’d left on, was beeping, a small notification flashing on the screen. She approached it slowly, sitting down and twisting her seat a couple of times before clicking on the notification.

An email from Jodie popped up on the screen, and it took her a few moments to realise that the email was actually forwarded to her from someone else. It took her a few more moments of scanning her email to realise that it was filled with information on the next teachers’ meeting – the one that occurred just before the teachers began prepping for the school year, right at the end of the summer holidays. Realising that the meeting would be taking place the following day, Allison sighed, before pushing herself up off her seat and heading towards the kitchen to make herself something to eat. As she rummaged around the kitchen, searching through half-filled and empty cupboards for something to snack on before switching on the TV, her mind drifted to what would happen at the meeting. Obviously she would be meeting new people (as well as seeing an old face) but what would they be like? Would they like her? Would she like them?

So many questions flew through her mind that she didn’t realise there were a couple of cans of tinned beans falling off the shelf until they were about to hit her, and she skipped out of the way quickly. The clattering on the floor made her flinch, and she sighed before leaning down to pick the cans up from the floor. Placing them on the counter, she rubbed a hand over her face.

“Maybe I’m just tired…” she muttered to herself, before beginning to stack them up in the open cupboard. Once that was complete, she moved to the fridge and decided to just grab a yoghurt from there.

That would keep her until the next day, she hoped.

* * *

It turned out that the yoghurt  _didn’t_  keep her until the next day, since she woke up hungry in the middle of the night, but there was nothing she could really do about it when there was nothing to cook. And she wasn’t sure the neighbours would approve of her going out and buying food this late, what with them all trying to sleep. So instead she decided to starve herself until the morning, when she could go out and buy something to eat on the way to the meeting.

Except, well, there were no places to eat on the way to the school.

Well, not on the route the taxi driver took, anyway.

So when she arrived at the school hungry, and maybe a little bit tired, Jodie seemed to feel obliged as her best friend to feel sorry for her.

“You look like you’ve had a  _shit_  morning.”

The brunette shot the redhead a dark look as she shouldered her dark brown satchel more comfortably over her shoulder and shifted the large box in her arms.

The two were stood at the edge of the staff car park of the secondary school, various cars pulling up beside them and behind them as the different members of staff arrived for their meetings, getting ready for the school year ahead. The school year that would start in about a week and a half, if Allison’s calculations were correct.

A week and a half and she had barely got her classroom ready. She was definitely spending the whole day preparing at school.

Despite the fact that this was a secondary school, there didn’t seem to be that many staff arriving. The car park was a little smaller than the one at her previous school, and there seemed to be far fewer teachers filing into the school from their vehicles – VW Polos, Ford Focuses, Mini Coopers and the single baby blue convertible. Jodie herself owned a Mini – something she was rather proud of, though she definitely hoped to get something better eventually. At the school she’d taught at before, the car park had been practically multi-storey, and though she wasn’t someone who drove she knew that there were often fights over who could park where, and who got what spaces – often to the point of different teachers falling out. Not only that, but it led to teachers grouping up and going against each other in teams, which made it very tense. Especially since Allie couldn’t take part, since she didn’t even drive. She’d ended up feeling alienated, and in the end she’d welcomed the idea of moving school – especially since it was offered by her best friend.

Still, the size of the school unsettled her a little. She wasn’t used to such small schools.

“I’d really rather just get in and start on the meeting,” she responded, turning to head away from the redhead’s car and into the main school building. Jodie seemed to take a moment to grab her own bag – a dark green satchel – before jogging to try and catch up with Allie and walk with her into the school.

“I’ll get that!”

Allie almost started when she reached the door and someone raced past to hold it open, standing aside for the two women, and she frowned slightly at the stranger. Dark brown hair flopped slightly over hazel-brown eyes, and he grinned slightly at Allie as she approached the door.

“Uh, thanks…” she started, trailing off.

“Trent. Jake Trent.”

“Jake, right. Thanks, Jake, but honestly – I didn’t really need any help.”

The male raised an eyebrow at her as she passed through the door. “That’s a bit cold for a first meeting, don’t you think?” he asked.

“Not if you’re Allie,” Jodie quipped as she caught up, passing Jake with a grin as she nudged him playfully. He squinted a little in confusion before his eyes lit up with recognition.

“ _Oh!_  You’re the newbie!” He let the door shut as he followed the two women into the building. “Miss Leister, right?”

Allie glanced over her shoulder to send Jake a small smile, before stopping at the reception desk and setting her box down on top of it. “That’s right,” she answered as she looked over the desk for the sign-in sheet. Jodie seemed to beat her to it, though, because mere moments after she spotted it, her redheaded best friend had grabbed the clipboard and was scrawling her signature down.

When Allie glanced over at Jake, she noticed that he had his lips pursed and was staring at her. “What?” she asked, frowning slightly.

Jake shrugged. “I don’t know, from the way Jodie described you, I expected you to be…  _taller_.”

The brunette raised an eyebrow at him before looking over at Jodie, grabbing the pen before she could put it down. “Taller?”

“And maybe a little chunkier.”

“ _Chunkier_?  _Really_  Jacob?” Jodie asked with a frown, noticing Allie’s glare on her. “I thought we agreed not to talk about that?”

Allie huffed as she scrawled down her signature before looking back up at Jodie. “Honestly, Jo, what have you been telling these people?” she asked.

“Not much…”

“I also expected you to get here a good couple of hours before Jodie did.”

“Okay, that one sounds more accurate,” Allie responded, her face lightening into a grin at the slight pout that appeared in Jodie’s face. “Hey, you were late to practically everything in school.”

Jodie huffed as she moved aside to let Jake sign in. “No I wasn’t! There were just other priorities in my opinion.”

“Like what?”

“Football.”

“Yeah, you were late to lessons.”

“I don’t know,” Jake said with a grin, “I don’t think that counts as late. Not in my opinion.”

Allie rolled her eyes, smiling slightly. “Oh great – I’m speaking to two professional late-comers.”

“Which makes it all the worse that you turned up at the same time as us,” Jodie quipped with a grin.

Jake laughed as he put his pen down, noticing the scowl on Allie’s face as he shouldered his blue satchel more comfortably.

Allie took a moment to glance around the office. Just to the edge of the office, by the double doors that most likely led to the rest of the school, was a staircase, and by the foot of the staircase stood a fairly Hispanic-looking woman – the Headteacher, Amanda Brights – who was in the middle of a conversation with a young, short blonde man, and just descending the stairs was a pretty average-heighted brunette, with her hair held back in a French braid and a handful of files in her arms. She smiled softly and gave Jake a small wave as she descended, which he returned.

“So what happens now?” Allie asked as she turned back to Jodie.

“Well, first I’ll take you down to your classroom, probably help you with some of your setting up for the rest of the school year, which you’ll probably get back to later on anyway, and then in a couple of minutes we’ll head down to the library for breakfast and our first meeting of the year.”

Allie’s eyebrows rose, and she tried to stop the hopefulness from showing on her face. “That sounds nice.”

“Not really,” Jake interjected. “The head of the PTA is a great cook, really, and she always manages to get the greatest treats for us all… but I think it’s kind of a way of getting us to like her family before the rest of her kids get here.”

Allie frowned. “Are her kids that bad?”

“The Baker kids are infamous. Honestly, you hear horror stories about those kids – even the eldest isn’t the greatest, though from what I hear she’s actually the  _nicest_  of the kids.”

Jodie’s face darkened. “Apparently, their cousins are just as bad, and when they’re all together it’s like a horror story.”

 _Baker_ … Allie had seen that name before. She tried to recall where… and then blanched. “I think there was a Baker on my register when it was sent to me the other day…  _Amelia-Deborah_  Baker?”

“That’s the eldest one. The others don’t get here until next year… but, you know, we’ve got links in the primary schools. They’ve given us nothing but warnings about those kids.”

“But you don’t call her  _Amelia-Deborah_ ,” Jake corrected. “Call her Amy-Deb. Or even just Amy. She only gets called  _Amelia-Deborah_  when she’s in trouble with her parents.”

“Which is probably often,” Jodie quipped, only smirking when she received a short glare from Jake.

“Is she really that bad…?” Allie asked slowly. “I think she’s in my form class…”

Jake shrugged slightly. “I had her in my form last year. She’s a bright girl, usually asking questions and stuff. And always trying to get involved in class activities. But when you leave her with her friends…”

“They cause a whole lot of trouble?” the brunette guessed, hoping that she was wrong.

“They don’t stop talking,” Jake corrected. “The trouble occurs in her actual classes, where the teachers don’t have the right to directly contact her parents – they can only contact her form tutors. If she messes around in form, then she’s in  _deep_  doo-doo.”

Allie spotted Jodie trying to conceal a smirk at Jake’s choice of wording, and she sighed. “All these years, and you still haven’t grown up?”

“Nope, but it’s why you still love me,” Jodie teased with a grin, before jerking her head towards the corridor that led to the rest of the school. “Come on, let’s get you to your classroom – the school is smaller than a usual secondary school, but people somehow still get lost here.”

Allie nodded, and she picked up her box and followed the redhead down the corridor, absently noting that Jake was following them. At some point along their journey, Jake bid them farewell and turned down a corridor already covered with numbers, which Allison assumed was the maths corridor. The two women continued until they reached a corridor that distinctly smelled of smoke… which wasn’t a good thing.

A couple of doors down the corridor, a blonde woman burst out of a room carrying a fire extinguisher, coughing and waving her free hand in front of her face. She looked back into the room with wide eyes. “Oh crap…”

Allie just blinked, before turning to Jodie with a raised eyebrow. The redhead grinned slightly.

“That, my friend, is one of your science colleagues: Dr. Katherine Banks.”

The blonde looked over when she heard her name being mentioned, and waved over at the other two. “Call me Kat!” she yelled down the empty corridor, before turning back to focus on what Allie could only assume was her ruined classroom. Allison drew her lips to the side in what could only be called slight concern for the woman’s sanity and disappointment that she wouldn’t have anyone more responsible around to help her get settled.

Before she could say anything about the other woman, Jodie shoved her into an empty classroom and held her arms out in some sort of ‘tada!’ gesture. “Your room of teaching!”

The brunette stumbled for a few moments, glaring back at the redhead, before standing up fully, setting her box down on a nearby bench and allowing herself to get a full view of the room.

It wasn’t that bad, actually. There were four rows of benches down the centre of the room, split into two columns with an aisle down the centre, and there were a couple of benches along the walls of the classroom as well. Each bench could easily hold up the four students, maybe five if they wanted to push it a little, and each had two gas taps, along with four plug sockets (that was going to drive her  _mad_  if her students were the type to play with the switches…). The walls of the room were bare ( _perfect_ ) and the benches each had four stools on top of them.

At the front of the classroom was her desk – not a large, posh oak one as it had been at her previous school, but a more modern white one, which seemed to be a mixture of white wood and chrome. Which was nice and new. As was the teachers’ laptop that rested on the desk.

At the expression on her face, Jodie decided to explain. “Each teacher gets given a laptop by the school,” she explained. “Sort of a way to bribe teachers into staying, since the place is so small and some of the kids are so horrid. They don’t monitor what you do on there, as long as it stays on the school grounds, so feel free to do what you like on there.”

“What’s the memory like?”

“1 terabyte.”

“And you can do  _anything_  you want on it?”

“Yup.”

“How many games have you installed?” the brunette asked, turning to her friend with a grin on her face.

Jodie shrugged, putting on an innocent expression. “I’ve got my Sims games for when I’m bored…” When Allie snorted, she continued. “Jake put Football Manager on his one, and last I heard there was some inter-teacher gaming competition with the laptops.”

“And Ms Brights doesn’t say anything about it?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s part of the betting pool.”

Allie shook her head slowly, a grin growing on her face. Honestly, this school was much crazier than her last school.

The two stood there in relative silence for a few moments, before Jodie spoke again.

“Well, now that you’ve seen your classroom, I think we should head down to the library for our meeting. And we should hurry – this is the only time in the year when we’re actually allowed to  _eat_  in there, so teachers tend to take full advantage of it.”

About ten minutes later, Allison found herself standing in front of the table of treats, trying to decide on what to eat. Already she’d placed a ham and cheese bagel and an apple on her plate, and was looking between all of the other options and trying to decide whether she should add anything else or just grab a glass of orange juice and be done.

Jake stood beside her, eyes scanning over all of the items. “Damn… she used butter in all of these, didn’t she?”

There was a snort from behind Jake, and Allie glanced over to see a blonde male standing there, holding a plate with two bagels in it. “Sorry, mate,” he said, patting Jake’s shoulder, though he had a smirk on his face.

Jake just narrowed his eyes at the other guy as he grabbed a couple of apples. “Oh, go put your hipster glasses on, you prick.”

“I would if I had any.”

“They’re in your pocket. I can  _see_  the freaking case.”

The blonde made a face at Jake, before realising that Allie was there. “Who’s the newbie?” he asked, picking up his bagel and taking a bite into it.

“Leister,” Jake answered, ignoring the eye roll that Allie gave. “Allie Leister.”

“Oh!” The blonde swallowed before giving her a grin. “So  _you’re_  the woman Jo talks about so much! Nice to finally meet you and all that…” He narrowed his eyes slightly. “Somehow I imagined you a bit  _taller_ …”

“Oh, leave the woman alone.” A black woman reached around the two males to grab an iced ring doughnut, deciding on the one with white icing and pink sprinkles. She smiled over at Allie, holding out her free hand to shake. “Aleshia.”

Allie shook her hand with a smile. “Allison.” Once she’d released Aleshia’s hand, she reached out to grab a glass of orange juice and take a sip.

“We’re only bugging her to spare you the torture of us bugging you and yours about your sex life,” the blonde quipped before taking another bite of his bagel, smirking at the woman.

The doughnut stopped halfway on its trip to her mouth, and Aleshia gave him a deadpan look. “We don’t  _have_  a sex life, Alex.”

“That’s not what last year’s student betting pool said.”

“You don’t have to get laid to be a happy teacher.”

“Well you do in Obed’s case.”

Allie nearly spat the orange juice out of her mouth.

Jake was the one who noticed this, and he frowned over at Allie. “What’s wrong? This too dirty a conversation for you?”

“No, no, it’s not that,” Allie started, only to get cut off by someone behind her.

“It’s just the fact that you’re actually discussing her cousin’s sex life in front of her.”

The brunette rolled her eyes, barely glancing over her shoulder as she took another sip and quipped, “I wouldn’t be as surprised if I’d known you were dating. I thought you’d stay lonely and unmarried for the rest of your life.”

Obed frowned as he moved past her and grabbed a custard doughnut, taking a bite into it. “What made you think that?”

“You live in a tiny little flat on your own, and have been doing so for the past few years, and last Christmas I saw your internet history and found out you were going to buy a couple of cats to keep yourself company.”

Alex whistled lowly as he stared at Allie with wide eyes. “Remind me to never let  _you_  into my flat.”

“She probably wouldn’t want to go there anyway,” Aleshia quipped as she ate her doughnut, ignoring the glare Alex gave her.

Another person butted into the conversation, using the excuse of grabbing a banana from the table to do so. “Hey, losers, what’d I miss?” he asked with a grin, flicking blonde hair out of his face as he straightened up.

“Nothing, because the meeting is starting,” a brunette woman said as she walked past the group, sending the man a smirk when he blushed faintly and swore under his breath. Allie recognised her as the woman from the reception area who had waved at Jake earlier on.

Jake snorted and leaned towards the man as he passed him to find a seat. “Smooth, Oliver,” he mumbled into the other man’s ear.

“Piss off,” Oliver grumbled in return, causing Obed and Alex to snort in amusement as they passed him.

Allie eventually found herself seated between Jodie and another woman. At first she’d thought it was Kat, the science teacher from down the hall, but then she realised this woman had hair that was much shorter and looked a whole lot more professional than the scientist. Later questioning informed Allie that her name was Laura, and she was Kat’s identical twin sister. Beside Laura sat her older brother, a blonde named George, and then there were two females – a brunette with green eyes called Chrissy, and a black woman called Abena (though she preferred to be called Abbie). Next to Jodie sat a tall man with dark hair and blue eyes, whose name was Kayden, and beside him sat Joshua, who had apparently become his boyfriend as of a week before. Behind her sat Jake and Alex, and that guy Oliver who had decided to tag onto the last bit of their conversation. Obed and Aleshia sat in front of her. The woman she’d seen at the reception was introduced as Niamh, and the short man Amanda had been discussing things with was introduced as Stephen. And around the room were various other teachers she hadn’t been introduced to quite yet.

The meetings went on pretty smoothly from there. Various forms were signed, information packs were given and reviewed, and the teachers were split into separate groups to deal with all of the necessary information and meetings that they usually had to do at the start of the school year. Meetings that were so long and boring that Allie was sure Ms Brights and her associates had condensed the information, made the meetings as short as possible, and left everything else in the packs to be read.

As if any of the teachers would actually read through those.

At about one p.m., the teachers were all let out for lunch, and it was almost like a stampede watching them all race out of the room. Only to gather in the reception area. When Allie approached with Jodie, she was pretty surprised to hear someone calling her name.

“Hey, Allie! Newbie picks lunch spot!”

There was a round of cheers as Allie was practically pulled over to the large group of teachers, and the female looked around bewildered for a few moments before finally deciding to try and think of a place for them to eat. “Uh…” The expectant looks on everyone’s faces threw her off a little bit. “How about… burritos?” She shrugged.

Someone narrowed their eyes at her. “Where?”

She bit her lip. “Chango’s…?”

There was a moment of silence and hesitation, before someone finally yelled, “Newbie has good taste!”

Allie had to wince at the resounding noise, but couldn’t help grinning when she saw the thumbs up that Jodie gave her.

* * *

Lunch was pretty much spent with everyone catching up with each other. Since the large group of teachers would have probably filled the restaurant to the brim and chased out all of the customers, they all collectively decided to get takeout and head to a nearby park to feast. Both on the way to the park and whilst they were eating, Allie managed to collect some pretty good information: Josh and Kayden had been flirting for a year before actually beginning to date, and the only reason why they started dating was because everyone was tired of it; Aleshia and Obed actually started dating because they bumped into each other at a pet shop trying to look for pet cats (which only fuelled Allison’s assumption that Obed was going to end up alone for the rest of his life); Kat and Laura had only come back from visiting their parents in the States a couple of days ago, and George hadn’t gone (for some reason that Allie didn’t quite know yet); Jake and Mandy had only broken up a month ago, and apparently Jake was still a little sore about their “relationship not being professional enough for the workplace”, which he thought was bullshit; Jake was also lactose intolerant, meaning that the burritos were a very good idea indeed; a lot of the staff were related to each other, since there were a lot of siblings around; and finally, there were two people missing.

The last fact puzzled Allie the most, because why would two teachers decide to be missing a week and a half before the school term started?

“Phillips and Phillips,” Jodie explained when she saw the confused look on Allie’s face. The names didn’t exactly do anything to help.

“Who are they?” She frowned slightly before speaking again, “Are they…”

“Brothers,” Jodie interjected. “Twins, actually, like Kat and Laura. Except, despite being identical, they actually look slightly different.”

“How?”

“Adam looks cuter,” Kayden called over from his circle, earning laughs and nudges from other teachers.

When the laughter died down a little, Jodie put her serious mask on and looked Allie in the eye. “No, but seriously, they’re not good news. James in particular.”

Allie raised an eyebrow at that, and that turned into two raised eyebrows when everyone else in their small circle started rolling their eyes at Jodie. “What’s so bad about them?”

“They’re just… bad news. Not exactly the best of people.”

“Is that why they aren’t here?”

“They’re in Australia visiting their dad,” Oliver explained around a mouthful of burrito. “He lives halfway across the world from them, and expects them to visit every summer – around this time, when they need to be getting ready to teach again. Which is inconvenient for them.” Before Jodie could speak, Oliver continued. “They’re not bad people, really. They’re just… hard work. And misunderstood.”

“They’re terrible to deal with,” Jodie argued.

“Just because you don’t have great experiences with them.”

“Jodie has a habit of arguing with James weekly when it comes to his students,” Jake explained. “Apparently, he’s not ‘disciplined enough’ on them during tutor time, so they always mess around during her lessons.”

“They  _do_!” Jodie whined.

Allie looked back and forth between the three of them, trying to decide who to side with in the argument (Jodie was probably her best bet, since she didn’t want to have her ear talked off for the rest of her time being employed there) when Niamh spoke up.

“So, apparently you and Jodie know each other from way back,” she said, her Irish accent lilting in as she changed the subject. “What was she like back then?”

“Bet she was the same loud-mouthed, arrogant little ginger back then,” Alex said with a smirk as he ate, earning a glare from Jodie and chuckles from everyone else.

Allie seemed to contemplate that for a few moments before smiling and nodding. “You’ve got that right,” she answered with a smirk. “Though she seemed a bit taller back then.”

“I was an early bloomer, leave me alone,” Jodie whined.

“What else?” Jake asked with a grin. “I mean, I only met her at uni, but what kinds of things did she do in secondary school? You went there together too, right?”

Allie glanced over at Jodie, who seemed to give her a look as if to say, “I dare you,” and she shook her head. “That’s for me to know, and you to never find out.”

“Oh, come on,” Aleshia said. “Is there nothing we can do to bribe you? Nothing at all?”

Allie just shrugged as she took a bite of her burrito, and all eyes turned on Jodie, who merely raised an eyebrow.

“What, you guys really expect me to help you with this?”

“Yes,” Jake answered bluntly.

Jodie seemed to hesitate for a few seconds, and Allie thought she was finally out of trouble, when Jodie got a little glint in her eyes and glanced over at Alex momentarily.

“She has a thing for green eyes.”

“Jo!” Allie practically screeched, whilst the blonde in question grinned at her and waggled his eyebrows.

“A secret for a date, then?” he asked, only to have her burrito wrapper thrown in his face.

“No.”

Someone from one of the other groups – a person Allie remembered as Amy, or Amy-Lee, or something like that – stood and announced that they needed to start heading back if they wanted to get back in time for the afternoon meetings and starting to set up classrooms.

“Hey, Al,” Jake called as he stood. “Whoever sits through these meetings longest gets the other’s ass in the Humanities supply cupboard.”

Alex grinned. “You’re on, Jakey.”

Allie’s nose crinkled slightly. “You’ve  _got_  to be kidding me…” she muttered, referring to the bet they’d made (and not the fact that it was two guys making the bet and not, say, a guy and a girl).

“I know,” Jodie muttered. “I keep  _supplies_  in that freaking cupboard!”

“Don’t worry – we make sure everything’s covered before we start,” Alex explained as he threw his empty burrito wrapper in the bin.

“You’ve done it before?” Obed asked, cringing.

Jake merely gave him a wink before sauntering off, leaving the others to shudder a little at the thought of those two together.

* * *

A few hours later, as Jake and Alex were arguing over who exactly lasted the longest through the talks (and Jodie was demanding they go to do their business in someone else’s supply cupboard so that they don’t ruin the sanctity of the room) Mandy asked any newer people, as in people who had joined within the last two years, to hang back and have a chat. Their talk was short, and they were dismissed soon enough on the condition that they didn’t have any questions or problems at that moment and that as soon as they did they would come to talk to her.

Eventually, Allie made it back to her room, only to find Jodie sitting in there with a glum look on her face. Allie didn’t even get to ask before she spoke.

“I promised them five minutes alone if they made it quick.”

Allie shuddered a little, before moving towards her box to unpack the supplies that she needed. “Shouldn’t you be going around looking for bleach or disinfectant to clean up that room as soon as they’re done?”

“I always keep some in my room, don’t worry.”

“Out of the kids’ reach, I hope.”

“What kind of teacher would I be if I gave kids easy access to bleach?”

Allie just smirked over at the redhead, who rolled her eyes.

“By the way, Kat came in here earlier. She told me to tell you that the science books were delivered whilst we were in meetings and are in boxes under your desk – one for Year 7 and 8 text books, one for Year 9 text books, one for GCSE text books, and a couple for empty exercise books. Science books are apparently either red or blue, with red for Years 7, 8 and 9, and blue for the GCSE years.”

Allie knew she should’ve asked this earlier, but she decided to spout the question that came to mind as she pulled out some of her own text books (which she used for reference sometimes) and supplies. “What, no sixth form here?”

“Nah, we partner with the college. All our kids go there.”

“Cool, I guess.”

“You should get to know some of the teachers there. It’ll help you make recommendations for your students. After all, your form is now yours until they leave.”

Before Allie could comment about that, a head popped in through her door. A blonde with green eyes, though the hair was considerably less shaggy than Alex’s had been. His eyes seemed to scan the room for a few moments before landing on Jodie.

“You!”

Allie frowned as she looked between George and Jodie. When the male beckoned the redhead over, he continued.

“I need your help planning the obstacle course for next week, since you technically can’t take part.”

Jodie snorted as she hopped off the bench. “Oh please – I always take part in it anyway.”

“No, this year we need a ref. Like, really,  _really_ need one.”

“What’s this about an obstacle course?” Allie asked suddenly, looking very confused.

“Every year, in those last couple of days before school officially starts, we hold little competitions between the teachers and stuff to let off steam. This year, it’s an obstacle course tournament that’ll  _hopefully_  span over a couple of days,” Jodie explained. “The P.E. teachers are meant to plan this all themselves, but I always get roped in to help.”

“Because you’re great at it,” George said with a grin.

“Or you guys are just lazy.”

“Yeah, that too.” George leaned on the doorpost. “So… are you going to help?”

“Yeah, sure, just gimme a sec,” Jodie told him, before turning to Allie. “You’ll be alright here?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Allie looked around her room. There was a lot to do, what with all of the walls being bare and all of the books needing to be put away, and she generally worked better when she was alone. She knew that. So she just waved Jodie off with a smile on her face. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Catch up with you later?”

“Yeah, sure.” Just as she was reaching the door, Jodie turned to look back at her best friend. “Oh, remind me, I need to give you a bit of a crash course when I get back. Knowing you, you’ll end up making a  _lot_  of mistakes that will cost you any sort of good reputation here.”

Allie rolled her eyes at her. “Nice to know you have such faith in me,” she responded.

Jodie just grinned at her, before ducking out of the door and following George over to the gym.

Allie turned around and took a deep breath, her eyes scanning over the classroom in front of her. What to do first…?

“Let’s get these books away, then.”

 


	2. New Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's getting closer to the beginning of the term and all the teachers have finally returned to the school, including the Phillips twins. Which means that Allison finally gets to meet them. And she finally understands all of Jodie's warnings.

“Look, I know I’ve been working a lot, but I have to be in to get all of this stuff done, okay? I’m sorry.”

…

“No, I didn’t get seriously burnt out there. Yes, I put on loads of sun screen. No, I haven’t got skin cancer.”

…

“No I—look, I have serious work to do. Like  _real_  work. I got held back and now I have, like, a week of work and setting up and meetings to catch up on. And you know how many meetings there are within the first couple of weeks before the kids start coming back.”

…

“No, you can’t. I’m sorry, I really am, but you can’t. And I can’t come home, okay? …Yeah, yeah. Tell mum I said ‘hi’. And  _don’t_  finish all the doughnuts – I actually want one this time.”

As he reached his classroom door, he sighed heavily, looking into the practically bare room. It looked like a mess – almost exactly as he had left it at the end of the summer term – and he had barely a week to tidy everything up and set up for the new school year. After all, his form class were one year older, he had a bunch of hyperactive new Year 7s coming in, and he was pretty sure that there was some sort of shift in the curriculum that he hadn’t been notified about yet (and probably wouldn’t be until just before school started on the first day). There was just  _so much_  to do, and so  _little_  time.

Not to mention that the day before school started was the day of the obstacle course.  _Fun_.

He practically groaned in pain as he set down his satchel on his desk and started going through the boxes of supplies he’d been provided this year. Books, books, more books…

He frowned slightly.  _Pretty sure I asked for the green ones for science this year…_  He shrugged. It wasn’t as if he could get everything, anyway. He had supplies – that was enough, right?

* * *

“Right – crash course recap!”

Allie rolled her eyes at Jodie’s dramatics, but did as the redhead instructed her to anyway, reciting the facts that had been relayed to her for the entire 20 minute journey from her apartment to the school building. “Mandy is pretty hands-off when it comes to dealing with the staff here: she lets you do your job, as long as whatever you’re doing to get it done is appropriate; she’s usually on your side if a parent complains, and tends to look at all the facts before deciding whether or not it’s worth it chewing you out for something a kid has most probably lied about in order to get you fired.

“Ryder handles the disciplinary complaints, but don’t bother go to him if they’re not too serious because he can get seriously pissed if you walk in whilst he’s reciting… Shakespeare, was it?” When she received a nod, Allie continued. “He’s usually pretty hands-off with the staff too, but most of the kids are terrified of him, even though he’s small. Do not underestimate him. If you ever want to get on his good side, ask Kayden. Kayden knows everything you need to make Josh putty in your palm without sex.” The brunette wrinkled her nose at that, but continued anyway. If she made an unnecessary comment, she was sure that Jodie would make her start over.

“Niamh the school secretary is absolutely amazing. She has a degree in art, is totally amazing at it, and dabbles with electronics in her free time. Don’t mess with her if you don’t want to get electrocuted, but she’s great generally. If your computer starts breaking down, call her or Olly – those two are engineering geniuses and should really be married with engineer babies by now.” Allie frowned. “I still don’t get that one.”

“Those two have the hots for each other. Or, at least, Niamh has the hots for Olly. Everyone except Oliver knows, and we need to keep it that way if we don’t want engineer babies crawling around the building yet,” Jodie explained.

“Ah, right.” She paused for a few moments, trying to think of the next thing before saying it. “Wright is only right when it comes to counselling students. He has so much sugar in his diet that he should really be a diabetic by now. To get on his good side, just get him cakes from that amazing bakery in town and he’ll love you forever. Just don’t give him too much, or he’ll go on a sugar high and scare the kids. And don’t let him share his food with the kids either, otherwise there will trouble. Any kids who steal his sweets are to be sent straight to Mandy.

“Groves seems over-enthusiastic, but he’s really only like that during school hours to encourage the kids to actually do something with their lives. He’s still a nice guy, but he’s a lot more laid back in reality. He can be easily bought with coffee. Don’t give him too much, though, or he actually  _becomes_  that over-enthusiastic guy he pretends to be, and that is actually terrifying.” Allie glanced over at Jodie. “That’s it, right?”

“Ah, my student has learnt well.” Jodie smirked as she began to slow down. “Right, any more questions before I ditch you and go to my own classroom to set up?”

Allison glanced around and realised that they were already in the science corridor, nearing her classroom. Better get those questions out of her mind. “The redhead I met in the office yesterday…”

“Jessie Parkson. Her brother works in DT. She’s generally quiet, and doesn’t really like getting involved in any drama, so if necessary don’t pull her in. Ever. Otherwise she’ll snap at everyone. Yeah, she’s scary, but she’s a redhead. She won’t bite. She’s just addicted to books.”

“The redheadedness explains a lot.”

“Did I ever tell you about Miss Bailey? You’re not meant to get on her bad side.”

The brunette laughed as they stood outside her classroom, her about to go in and her best friend getting ready to head over to Humanities to finish up with her own classroom and possibly set up lesson plans for the first few days of school. She was about to tell her best friend that she didn’t really have any more questions to ask, and so she could go off and do whatever, when she spotted movement in the other classroom – the one across the hall from her – and her eyes focused there to have a better look.

Her eyes almost immediately caught on to the back of the person standing by one of his classroom’s display boards, seemingly reaching up to staple something to the top. The t-shirt riding up to expose part of the toned frame beneath caused eyebrows to rise slightly. And as if that wasn’t enough, the sunlight filtering through the window glinted off reddish-auburn hair.

_Green eyes, my ass. Red hair is my jam._

“Who’s that?” Allie asked, keeping her eyes focused on the male setting up his classroom. Jodie glanced over her shoulder to take a look, and then frowned at what she saw.

“Phillips,” she stated plainly.

“Which one?”

“James.”

Allie stared for a good few seconds longer, before Jodie sighed and pulled her into her classroom, shutting the door.

“Hey, didn’t I warn you?” Jodie hissed with a deep frown.

“If his brother is cuter, I’m screwed,” Allie muttered.

“He has an ugly-ass face.”

“You’re lying.”

“Okay, okay, I am,” Jodie admitted, “but he’s an asshole on the inside. Trust me. You do  _not_  want to mess around with him. He has no sense of consideration for any—”

“Yo, Jo!”

The two looked over at the door to see Jake Trent standing there, leaning against the door post with his hands in his pockets and his satchel over his shoulder.

Jodie sighed and folded her arms. “What?” she demanded.

“Alex needs you up in Humanities. Something about the corridor looking incredibly boring and needing sprucing up, even though he sucks at that sort of stuff.”

The redhead sighed, shaking her head slowly before patting her friend lightly on the arm. “Have fun getting your class ready on your own, my friend. I have a useless git who needs my help.” Just as she was heading over to the door, where Jake stood, she glanced back over her shoulder at Allie. “Remember what I warned you about, Al. Don’t do it.”

“You of all people should know what I do when I’m told not to do something.”

“I’m serious, Al.  _Don’t_.”

The brunette waited until Jodie was gone before rolling her eyes at the redhead. Honestly, Jodie could be so dramatic sometimes.

Heading over to her desk, she placed her bag down before reaching for the box of things she’d left to do from the day before. Not much was left – a little bit of stapling, one last check of all the supplies she had to make sure she had enough for her students, a quick read-over of her register so that she knew exactly how many students she had, before recalling everything she’d been told about them so that she knew how many to expect in her classes beyond the first day – so she found herself finishing within the first hour or two.

Really, she didn’t need to come in that early.

Thus, she decided to head down to Kat’s classroom a little ways down the corridor, knocking a couple of times before walking in. When she saw the mess, Allie sighed.

“Have you  _still_  not got your classroom in order?” she asked the blonde, who was sat on her desk (yes,  _on_ , and not  _at_ ) typing away at her computer. “You’ve been here longer than I have, and I’m pretty much done.”

“Well, I clearly have something better to be doing than setting up my classroom…” the blonde mumbled, before she looked up at Allie sharply. “Oh! That reminds me – some books came in for you last night after you left. So you’re technically not done yet.”

Allie moved over to where Kat was sat on her desk, deciding to join the blonde in sitting on the desk and raising an eyebrow. “What books?” she asked curiously.

“Those AS-Level Biology books. You said something about wanting to push some of your Biology students a little so that they could get accustomed to the higher courses faster…?”

“Right, that.” She raised an eyebrow at Katherine. “Well?”

“Under my desk. You can take them and go. They’re best off in the library.”

“Excuse me? Rude.”

“Sorry, I’m trying to beat Trent’s high score here. No one in this department has been able to do it yet, and I will  _not_  be beaten by a math teacher.”

“Math ** _s_** ,” Allie corrected.

“Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to,” Kat responded simply, before moving aside a little so that Allie could grab her books. “Really, you should try this yourself. I bet you’d be able to beat him.”

Allie hesitated in reaching down to pick up her box and gave the blonde physics teacher a look. “Really, Katherine? Really?”

She shrugged. “Hey, I had to try and draw you in somehow.”

* * *

_*SNAP*_

“Ow— _fuck_!” The staple gun dropped to the floor as James hopped up and down on the spot, alternating between shaking his right hand and sucking on his pointer finger. Honestly, he had never been good with that thing – why did it choose  _now_ , of all times, to try and staple his finger?

Despite the fact that he’d only come in that morning, James had made relatively good progress with his classroom. The books were all stacked in their respective cupboards, which were dust and gum free (thank you cleaners), and all of his stationary had been delivered already and was either in his desk on one of the counters on the side of the classroom. All that was left were the displays.

Hence, stapling his own finger with the staple gun.

He had warned people that staple guns were some sort of demonic creation. But did they listen to him?  _No_.

He’d just about hopped in a 180° turn when he spotted someone out in the corridor, carrying what seemed to be a large cardboard box, and ended up doing a double take when he saw them. Wavy dark brown hair, slim, glasses… the woman was good looking, he had to admit.  _Probably a new addition to the English department_ , he thought absentmindedly.

He didn’t notice the person looking over at him until it was too late, and they had already noticed him staring.

“Are you alright?” she asked, and James vaguely noticed how her accent didn’t quite sound northern, like most of the other teachers’ did (a lot of them weren’t born up north, but the accents grew on them).  _Must be a newbie from down south._

“Uh…” was all he managed to mumble, still shaking his hand and wincing a little.

She placed her box down on the corridor floor before heading into his room, dodging around a couple of desks to get to him before looking down at his hand, her eyebrows rising. “Oh, you’re bleeding?” She took his hand gently (and he didn’t protest – not one bit). “How’d you do that?”

“Um… staple gun…” he said, though it sounded more like a question than an answer. “I’m… kinda crap at using one.”

“Well, it sure seems like it,” she joked lightly, sending him a smile, before looking over his injured finger. She seemed to analyse it for a few moments, before looking up at him. “You just cut the side of your finger – nothing too serious. You haven’t really damaged any nerves or anything, so you won’t lose any feeling in your finger. Or, at least, you  _shouldn’t_.” Before he could continue, she carried on, as if anticipating what he would ask next. “No, you won’t lose a whole lot of blood either. A small plaster should be okay.”

He clamped his mouth shut, pursing his lips slightly as he looked down at his thumb, before pulling his hand back and sucking on his finger lightly.  “Can you get me a plaster?”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him, before turning to head out of the room. “I’m heading down to the library anyway, and from what I recall the nurse’s office is right on the way there.” She glanced back at him over her shoulder. “Unless you keep bandages in your desk? As a chemistry teacher, I’d expect you’d do something of the sort.”

James frowned a little as he began to follow her out of the room. “Well, I haven’t exactly stocked up ye— hold on, hold on. How did you know I was a Chemistry teacher?”

“Uh… you’re in a Chemistry classroom?” the brunette pointed out slowly, scoffing as she moved to pick up her box of books and set them on her hip slightly. “Don’t you want a plaster? You need to get back and continue with your classroom – we can’t dawdle.”

* * *

“So, you’re pretty new, I guess?”

She simply looked over at him with a raised eyebrow before focusing her gaze on the corridor ahead of them. “What made you think that? The fact that you’ve never seen my face before?”

“More the fact I’m sure I haven’t slept with you yet.” At the horrified look she gave him, he held up his hands in surrender. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! I don’t sleep with  _everyone_  in this school! Honestly, I know how to keep it in my pants… most of the time.”

“Please stop hitting on me. I don’t want to puke all over these books, thank you very much.”

James had the audacity to chuckle at that, before turning to walk backwards as he walked with her. “So, where  _are_  you from? Your accent doesn’t sound northern. More… southern.”

Her lips quirked up into a slight smile as she focused on the corridor ahead, taking her time before deciding to respond. “You could say that I am fairly southern. But  _where_ do you think I’m from?” she teased.

“Heaven? That’s where angels come from, apparently.”

“What did I say about hitting on me?”

“I’ve forgotten.”

She scoffed as she sped up her walking so that she was just ahead of him, forcing himself to turn around so that he could actually keep up with her. Before he could open his mouth to say something else (something that the brunette was sure would be extremely moronic), she stopped and placed her box down on the floor. “Nurse’s office.”

James raised an eyebrow, before turning towards the door labelled, very clearly, ‘ _Nurse’s Office_ ’. “…Well, that was quick.”

“You were too busy talking half the time to notice where we were.” The brunette moved to open the door, ignoring how James tried to push past to open the door himself, and called in: “We’ve got a stapled finger!”

“What do you think I am, Leister, a surgeon?!” A young, blonde male rolled into view on a wheelie hair, a pen in one hand tapping against his mouth. His eyebrows rose when he noticed who she was with. “Who’s this?”

James frowned slightly at the sight of the nurse. “Where’s Abbie?” he asked, though he didn’t seem to bother to sound polite.

“Got a job at the college,” the nurse answered as he stood, tucking his pen into his top pocket. “You must be… Phillips?”

“What’s it to you?”

“You have a stapled finger. I think you should be a little nicer to me right now so that I can actually  _help_ you.” Without warning, he took Jamie’s right hand, simply raising an eyebrow at the wound. “Leister, I thought you said he stapled his finger?”

“He has,” she replied. “That’s why it’s bleeding. And that’s why he needs a plaster.”

“A  _plaster_?”

“If you start mocking me, I will punch you,” James threatened, and the blonde took a step back, letting go of James’ hand and holding his own two hands up in surrender.

“Alright, alright.” He offered James a small smile. “Uh… just a plain plaster?”

James narrowed his eyes at the young nurse. “Are you mocking me?”

“No, no! It’s just that I ordered in some Chemistry themed ones and they came in just yesterday…”

“Oh.” James pursed his lips. “Okay, give me one of those.”

The brunette just rolled her eyes at him, before turning to head out of the room, picking up her box in the corridor. Sending a smirk back over to Phillips, she shifted the box into a more comfortable position. “I’ll see you around, Phillips,” she called out, before heading towards the library.

James moved so that he could watch her head down the corridor, before turning to look back at the blonde nurse who was bringing over the box of plasters. “Who was she?” he suddenly asked as he watched the nurse rummage through everything.

The nurse scoffed as he looked up at the redhead. “Seriously? She walked you down to the nurse’s office, and you didn’t even ask her name?”

“It skipped my mind.”

He merely chuckled lightly as he picked out a plaster with little beakers all over it, before beginning to put it on James’ finger. “Miss Leister, new teacher. Apparently, she’s called Allison. Don’t know quite what she teaches, though – she hasn’t told me.”

James raised an eyebrow at that. A mysterious teacher with a class that people didn’t know about? That was strange… usually everyone knew what everyone taught in this school…

“And you?”

“Huh?” James snapped to attention, looking over at the nurse.

The nurse sighed. “Name, class, form… just so I know who to expect down here?”

James frowned. “I thought you already knew?”

“It’s common courtesy just to tell?”

“James Phillips.  _Dr._  James Phillips,” he corrected himself quickly. “I teach Chemistry. Form group is Year 9, so expect some idiots being sent in here. Not everyone behaves in a Chemistry classroom.”

The nurse chuckled slightly at that. “Well, thanks for the heads up. I’m Levi Rowell, the new nurse. And from I’ve heard about the previous nurse, I’ve got some pretty big shoes to fill…”

“Not really. She’s not a very big person,” James joked lightly.

Levi actually laughed at that, before securing the plaster completely and moving to tidy up. “All done, Dr. Phillips. Please try not to staple any more of your fingers. I don’t think Ms. Brights will be too pleased if you do.”

“I’ve warned her about how well I get on with the staple guns. Honestly, I have.” James let out a light chuckle as he moved to leave the room. “Well, I need to get back to my classroom. Gotta finish all the setting up… I’m really behind on that.”

“Sure, sure, see you around, Phillips.” Just as the redhead was leaving, Levi suddenly thought of something. “Oh, hold on – if you need to find out more about Leister, apparently she hangs out a lot with short ’n’ red… so you could find out quite a bit from her.”

James’ eyebrows rose, but a smirk grew on his face at that. “Well, thanks for that, Levi. I’ll make sure to get  _you_  a thank you present for that juicy bit of information.”

* * *

“If you honestly think I’m going to tell you anything about Allison Leister, you must be having a right laugh, Phillips.”

James sighed heavily at the smaller redhead’s response, before moving to sit on her desk, giving her a small pout. “Please, Jo?”

“No. You look like a prat.”

“Are you saying no because I  _look_  like a prat?”

“No. I’m just saying no. But you look like a prat when you pout.”

He scoffed. “Funny – when my brother pouts it works on you.”

She tensed at the blatant tease, before glaring up at him. “Look, Phillips, if you don’t want your balls popping out of your eye sockets…”

“I’m out.” He jumped off the desk and headed towards the door. “But do you really mean that you’re not going to—”

“Look, Phillips.” She levelled him with a look that wasn’t quite glaring. “You’re chaos embodied, and I don’t want you hanging out with her. But if you want to get to know her, you get to know her like a  _normal_  person, you asshat.”

James pursed his lips at her choice in language, but turned and continued to head out of the room. Maybe Jodie had a point… but that didn’t mean he had to like it, much less follow it.

He’d just have to find out about the new girl from someone else, right?

It was a shame Jodie managed to spread the news of him looking for information so quickly, otherwise he might’ve actually found something.

The next time he saw this new woman was during his lunch break, in the cafeteria. Just as he was getting his lunch, he spotted her sitting down and eating what seemed to be takeout with Jake and Alex. Jake and Alex who were Jodie’s friends and somehow knew more about this girl and was closer to her than Jamie was.

They were probably flirting with her for all he knew.

Actually, they most likely were.

He should save her.

Walking over to the table, James barely managed to take a deep breath before he reached them. And Jake was the first to notice his appearance.

“Phillips?”

James made a show of rolling his eyes. “I have a first name, y’know.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m going to use it,” Jake retorted, pulling a smirk out of Alex and a small scowl out of the red-headed teacher before he turned to the female brunette sitting with them – the reason for his arrival.

“Hey, where’d you get that?” James asked her, taking a seat at the table without even bothering to ask whether it was okay. He indicated to the brown paper takeout bag in front of her. “School doesn’t give lunches in paper bags, the cheapskates.”

She merely smiled at his attempt to start a conversation with her, before deciding to join in. After all, nothing terrible would or could come out of just a chat, right? “Nando’s, in the town centre,” she answered as she turned her bag so that he could see the logo on the front.

His eyebrows rose slightly at that. “You drove to the town centre to get lunch?”

“I don’t drive,” she answered quickly – almost quick enough for it to seem instinctual. “But I got a lift from these guys. Apparently there were a bunch of teachers who went to get Nando’s for lunch, and I thought I would tag along. Some sort of acceptance for picking a good place on my first day.”

James’ brow furrowed deeply.  _A good place on the first day…?_ “Wait, how come no one told me about this?”

“You were too busy getting your classroom ready. I’ve seen the state of that room, and it’s a tip. It was better if you didn’t come.”

He’d known her less than a day and she was already speaking up for him?  _Bold_. “Uh… thanks, I guess?” he answered hesitantly, frowning at the sniggers Alex and Jake gave. “So, what, you didn’t even think to invite me?”

“Nope.” She gave him something akin to an ‘angelic’ smile, before popping a couple of peri-peri chips into her mouth.

James blinked for a few moments, before shrugging and turning to his own meal. He thought their conversation was over, until she muttered something in his ear.

“I know you went to ask Jodie about me earlier,” she whispered, scrunching the top of her paper bag so that she could carry it more easily. “You know, if you’re interested in someone and want to find out more about them, the best thing to do is ask the person themselves, rather than go behind their back and ask someone who knows them.”

James would never, ever admit to the bright red flush that appeared on his face as she rose from her seat and walked off without a single glance back at him, though he stopped blushing and berating himself in his mind quickly enough to catch what she said next.

“My name _is_ Allison, by the way, but I would’ve told you if you’d just asked.”

James could only watch her saunter away with his mouth slightly ajar. Cute  _and_  sassy… he could work with that. Now if he only knew what department she worked in…

“Shut your mouth or you’ll catch flies.”

James turned sharply to glare at the speaker, only to catch Jake grinning at him. He narrowed his eyes at the other male. “Really, Trent, really?”

Jake simply shrugged at him with a smile. “Hey, I had to catch your attention somehow.” Before the redhead could answer, he moved on to the topic he’d intended to start in the first place. “So you ready for tomorrow?”

James gave him a blank look. “What’s tomorrow?”

Alex groaned, nearly slamming his fist down on the table… repeatedly. “ _Dude_ , the competitions! The whole inter-teacher thing starts tomorrow! Don’t tell us you’ve forgotten and haven’t prepped your team or given them a pep-talk yet…”

“Have you seen how far behind I am in prepping my classroom? I can’t compete in inter-teacher this year!”

“You’ll be able to work out what class Allison has from what team she’s on.”

_That_  made James perk up, but he still took a moment to hesitate and think about it thoroughly before sighing. “Okay, I’m not prepped or anything for tomorrow… what’s going on this year?”

“Jodie and the P.E. department—”

“She’s working with them again this year?”

“—decided to go for an obstacle course this year instead of dodgeball. Apparently it was too brutal last year.”

“Dude, Alex spent the first week of school speaking in a higher octave than usual from Laura’s throw.”

Alex winced at that. “All the kids thought my balls had forgotten to drop.”

Jake barely managed to cover up his snort at that, causing him to clear his throat and continue talking in order to avoid Alex’s glare. “Yeah, so, obstacle course this year. Apparently they’d already planned a whole couple of days of sports, but Mandy wanted to clamp down on it so that teachers could focus on finishing up their classes and no one would start the school year with any…  _obvious_  injuries.” He shot a sly look in Alex’s direction.

James nodded, smirking a little at the withering look that Alex sent Jake. “Okay so are we picking the teams this year, or…”

“Teachers voted to have it done according to year group, so horizontally instead of vertically this year. Apparently it would be a good idea for the newer teachers to get on with their fellow year group tutors.”

“Oh, okay.” The redhead failed to recognise, however, the looks that Alex and Jake were sending him. “What?”

Alec smirked slightly. “Oh… nothing.” He looked down at James’ barely touched meal. “Hey, are you going to eat that? I’ll trade you my peri-peri chicken wings for that burger.”

“Ew, you’d trade Nando’s for a school burger? Dude, that’s low.”

“I’m not in the mood to handle the spice today. Are you going to eat that burger or not?”

Jake gave him a look. “If you didn’t want the wings, why’d you even come to Nando’s with us?”

“Because Allie was going and Allie is cool.”

“Hey nerds,” someone greeted as they sat at the table – a tall, fair-haired guy better known as Oliver. “What’d I miss?”

“You call us nerds but we don’t enjoy dealing with computers for a living,” James retorted as he grabbed Alex’s Nando’s from him and began to eat it.

Oliver just scoffed as he opened his lunch bag and unveiled his meal – McDonald’s. James threw his arms up in exasperation when he spotted the meal in front of his friend.

“Honestly, does everyone just go out and grab food and leave me behind?”

“Well, Allie said—”

“Dude, you ditched me without even asking!” A smirk grew on James’ face. “I bet you took Niamh instead of me. Was it a nice lunch date?”

“You know, I could ditch you guys and go sit in her office right now—”

“I love how prepared you are to give us more ammo,” Alex quipped, and the group burst into laughter at the glare Oliver sent him.


	3. Recognising Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teachers have finally reached the last day before school officially starts, which is filled with obstacle courses and last-minute holiday catch ups - their last chance of freedom before their weeks are swarmed with everything to do with teaching.

James sighed as he pulled up in front of the apartment block, moving his shades from his face so that they were perched on top of his head before pressing his car horn a few times. Honestly, if the fact that he had a Porsche didn’t attract enough attention, then he had certainly attracted more now. He ignored the people slowing and stopping to stare in favour of watching the door to the block and waiting for it to open. When it didn’t, he sighed and beeped again.

“Come on, Adam,” he muttered, tapping on his steering wheel impatiently. When the beeping didn’t seem to work, he decided on revving the engine as often as he could. God, he knew just how much Adam hated him showing off how much horsepower this thing had.

And sure enough, his red-headed twin emerged from the apartment block minutes later, a scowl on his face and satchel slung over his shoulder. When he reached the car, he glared at his brother. “Did you have to bring this one today?” he asked before climbing in. “People always stare when you bring this one.”

James just grinned at his brother, shooting him a wink as he buckled his seatbelt before flooring the accelerator, letting the wheels screech as he sped away from Adam’s apartment block.

He didn’t register his brother’s screams until about five minutes later, though by that time they’d made it halfway through the journey and we’re at practically in the middle of the town centre, meaning that James had to slow down if he didn’t want to crash.

“Are you  _still_  scared of how I drive?” the slightly younger male asked his brother as they slowed down at a red light, only to be rewarded with a glare.

“Well, I’m not that fond of dying right  _now_ , and the way you drive definitely leads to it!” Adam snapped. The car was silent as the two digested that, and James sighed.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” he said finally. “I just… don’t want to be late on our last day before the first day back.”

Adam scoffed, though now he was smiling. “We’re  _always_  late on the last day before our first day back, Jay. It’s just what we do.”

“But as Captain of the team for the Science Department, I need to be early to make sure everything is set up and our team is ready.”

Adam raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure  _you’re_  the captain?” he asked slowly.

James scoffed at that, as if his brother’s comment was ridiculous and the idea of him  _not_  being the team’s captain was even  _more_  ridiculous. “Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?”

The elder twin shrugged a little. “I was just thinking… maybe the new teacher could be in the running for team captain,” he suggested, though when his brother scoffed again Adam just rolled his eyes.

“Oh please – the guy’s probably old and pudgy, with no idea on how to lead a team.”

“ _Teacher_ , Jamie – that requires knowledge on how to  _lead_.”

“I’m not taking back my opinion if that’s what you’re trying to get me to do.” After a moment, he decided to rephrase. “Okay, so they  _may_  know how to lead a team, but the guy’s still gonna be old and pudgy.”

Adam had to hide his smirk – it seemed as if his brother hadn’t even bothered finding out about that new teacher he was going to be working with… “What, like the last teacher was?” he asked.

“No. Hayley was a great teacher, with a great teaching style, and I know for a fact that if she was willing… I could’ve totally got away with making out with her at least once.”

Adam snorted. “Dude, give it up – she wasn’t into you.”

“She was totally into me.”

“Just because you like brunettes doesn’t mean she likes gingers.”

“How can she  _not_  like gingers?”

“Well, when they’re like  _you_ , there are a lot of reasons not to like gingers.”

James spared his brother a short glare before focusing on the road ahead. Glancing at the landmarks around them, he could safely assume that they were now about two minutes away from the school site – as in, James had two minutes to quickly come up with a general plan for whatever was planned for the teachers to get into for their team working activity that day. Great.

“Okay, Adam, help me brainstorm,” he said as he turned down a street, not even waiting for his brother to respond before continuing. “I need to come up with a general plan. Something that no one else will think of.”

“How about what you end up coming up with every year?” Adam suggested with a smirk. “Fight to win; destroy everyone in your way?”

James scowled slightly. “I do not always use that!”

“We’ve literally just come up to the school road.”

“Fight to win and destroy everyone sounds like a good plan; let’s go with that.”

“I’m not on your team.”

James simply smirked as he pulled into the car park and stopped in his regular space, turning off the engine and preparing to get out of the car. “Have fun being crushed then.”

“Hey!” Adam cried indignantly as he watched his brother leave the vehicle, getting out himself once he’d managed to pull his seatbelt off. “ _Asshole_!”

* * *

“Are you sure this is a team building activity we should be doing?”

The question was barely heard above the chattering of the other teachers – who sounded more like the actual  _students_  of the school than teachers at that moment in time – who stood and sat in various places around the sports hall, having their own conversations. Some were in pairs, some were in large groups, but one this was definite: all of them were in some sort of sports kit. Shorts, leggings, tracksuit bottoms… along with t-shirts, polo shirts and hoodies. All of them were wearing something sporty (though it still hadn’t been confirmed that plimsolls actually  _counted_  as sports kit, since they never really let the students wear them for sports) and all of them looked pretty much ready and raring to go as far as this competition was concerned.

And as for the competition itself…

“An obstacle course doesn’t really look safe to me.”

Jodie simply gave her brunette best friend a raised eyebrow before glancing over at the course. A series of jumps, tunnel climbs, zig-zags, bean bag throws and a good few balancing acts (seriously? This was too much) all concluded with a rope climb where the first to ring the bell at the end won.

How they managed to fit all that in one hall honestly befuddled Allie. Though she didn’t even bother asking where they managed to get everything and how they got permission to even do it at all. After all, word on the street was headmistress Brights didn’t even mind watching these events – she probably thought they were entertaining. If Allison got to see a bunch of grown adults flop and fall on their faces, she would too.

“Of course it’s safe,” the redhead attempted to console her, though it sounded like a casual brush off. “It’s perfectly safe. We wouldn’t set up something that would hurt people or cause serious injury. Mandy wouldn’t let us.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“…Well, she probably would just so that she could watch us and say ‘I told you so’, but we promise, no one’s going to die.” She shot her friend a reassuring smile before going on to talk about something that was, in her opinion, more serious. “Now, the teams are set up according to form years, since the forms are split up amongst the subjects. The teachers who don’t have a form usually band together, but since we actually worked together to set up this event and most of us are sports teachers, we’re not allowed to. It would be considered unfair to all of you other competitors.” The redhead rolled her eyes at that, but continued. “Anyway, so you’re split up according to form years. Since you’re a biology teacher, your form year is… Year 9. So your team would be Banks, Hardy and – unfortunately for you – Phillips.” She patted Allison’s shoulder. “I would bid you good luck, but with Phillips on your side you’ll be pretty strong. You guys will kick ass. It’s just that Phillips will insist on being team captain and unless you put your foot down, your team will suffer for it.”

“ _Suffer_  is a bit of a harsh word,” the brunette muttered.

“Not when it’s James you’re talking about. Then it’s perfectly accurate.” The redhead looked up at the giant digital clock on the wall, before patting her best friend’s shoulder again. “Competition’s about to start. People are going to get in their teams now, so I suggest you go find yours.”

Just as Jodie finished speaking, a loud whistle blew through the gym, and one of the P.E. teachers – a black woman that Allison recognised to be Abbie Appiah – stood on top of a bench, holding a speakerphone to her mouth.

There was a loud screeching noise from the playback, before it died down and she started speaking. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the fifth annual pre-term inter-year teacher competition!” Expecting cheers to follow, she appeared rather disappointed when she got barely anything in response. She sighed. “Free Costa coffee to everyone who cheers.”

The cheer that followed was almost deafening.

“This year we  _finally_  got permission to do our worst – the  _obstacle course_!”

“Surely there are things worse than an obstacle course,” Allison muttered, though since there was no one really standing with her (Jodie had somehow disappeared without a trace and without a freaking warning) it seemed more like she was talking to herself.

Until she heard a voice respond behind her.

“No, there isn’t, really.”

The brunette jumped and turned, distracted from whatever speech Appiah was making and coming face to face with a someone she recognised as Amy Smith – at least, from Jodie’s descriptions. Blonde hair, nearly unnaturally purple eyes that were most definitely contacts, and what seemed to be a very unique sense of fashion when it came to sportswear (Allison would, personally, never wear an off-the-shoulder jumper to do any sort of sport, but this woman rocked it).

When she saw Allison’s surprised look she confused it for, funnily enough, confusion and decided to elaborate. “We used to have football matches where only those who wanted to would participate. Then it moved to rugby. Then there were reports of blackmail to get as many teachers as possible to do it, so they just made it compulsory. Two years ago was the first year, and we only did football; last year they went for dodgeball and loads of people got injured. Now they’re making us do an obstacle course which involves a lot of crawling and jumping and throwing, which sucks if you have bad aim. And apparently they’re only doing it because they couldn’t get permission to do dodgeball in time, and the risks were too high after everything that happened last year. So that’s probably going to start up again next year.”

The brunette pursed her lips slightly at that. “That’s unfair…”

“Isn’t it? At least we’re not doing it out in the rain, though.”

“That’s would be horrid. Rain and mud…” Both of them shuddered, before laughing quietly. Allison was pretty lucky that she chose that exact moment to tune back in to whatever was being said.

“…So, get into teams according to your form year groups, and you have, like, fifteen minutes to come up with a plan or whatever.” At that moment, it wasn’t Appiah speaking, but the brunette called Chrissy Steward. “Ready? Go!”

Unlike whatever mass panic she was hoping to cause, the teachers only moved around slowly, a lot of them dawdling to chat with their friends who were most likely on other teams. Chrissy seemed to get annoyed by this and brought a whistle let to her lips, blowing it harshly.

“First team ready gets free coffee for a month!”

_That_  was when the teachers got moving.

Allison seemed to wander about aimlessly for a while, not knowing exactly where she was headed, when she felt her arm begin grabbed. She yelped as she was pulled to the side, only to come face to face with the one and only Dr. Banks.

Kat grinned at her widely. “Hey, teammate! A little lost there?”

The brunette pursed her lips slightly. “You could say that,” she answered, glancing around. “I had absolutely no idea where I was headed and… wait, you’re on my team?”

The blonde grinned and nodded. “Welcome to your team!” she proclaimed proudly, gesturing to the other two males standing with her – both with red hair, one slightly shorter than the other, the taller one with blue eyes and the shorter one with hazel eyes…

Hazel eyes that widened considerably as they stared at her. That was when she realised exactly who she was looking at. Not that she was really surprised – after all, he was going to be working across the hall from for her an indefinite amount of time.

He was just ignorant enough to not know who  _she_ was.

“Wait,  _you’re_  the new Biology teacher?!”

She knew she should have expected the question, but the way he was asking it didn’t make it any less surprising.

“You didn’t  _know_?” she asked, folding her arms.

He spluttered for a few moments, before frowning deeply. “You didn’t  _tell_  me!”

“I didn’t have to tell anyone else,” she pointed out simply. “All you had to do was be there from the beginning of teacher training.”

Kat and the other redheaded male – who Allison now remembered was Benjamin Hardy, the other science teacher – winced at that, which was probably because of the scowl that grew on James’ face. Clearly this was some sort of sensitive topic that Allison had touched on, but it wasn’t like she was going to apologise; she wasn’t going to apologise for the fact that he hadn’t even bothered to ask around about her. That was just rude.

“I was  _busy_ ,” he replied slowly, his tone betraying the fact that he was barely holding back his temper. Before she could say anything in response, he continued, not even looking at her. “Right, so we need to come up with a strategy – I have one in mind, which is  _great_ —”

“Like every year’s…” Kat grumbled underneath her breath.

“—and it requires us to go in order of speed.” The smaller redhead looked to Allison. “As the newbie, you should go first. You know, slowest at the front.”

“That’s why I shouldn’t be at the front,” she countered simply. At Kat and Benjamin’s shocked looks, she shrugged. “I’m not the slowest here, and I can guarantee it.”

“How?” James asked.

“I was a sprinter.”

“And how do you know the rest of us aren’t?”

“Your physiques. Kat’s too lazy, Hardy doesn’t have the  _exact_  physique of a sprinter, and you…” She frowned slightly as she thought about it. “I don’t know… there’s something about you.”

Allison decided not to mention how she’d chatted with Mitch earlier that week and found out that James was a swimmer, not a sprinter, and so he wasn’t exactly a winner on land. He belonged in the water.

James seemed to contemplate on what she’d said for a good few moments before shrugging. “I can’t be sure how fast you are compared to the others.”

“Put me at the end or I’m not racing.”

“You’re not going at the end.”

“Who made  _you_  leader?”

He glared at her. “First of all, I’ve been here for longer than you have, so I  _know_  how the other teams work. And secondly, why do  _you_  have such a problem with how this team is working?”

She huffed and folded her arms. “Did you even  _bother_  asking these two about other strategies this team could use?” she asked.

“They trust my strategies enough.”

“So that’s a no, then.”

“You know, the other biology teacher didn’t complain about my strategies.”

“Maybe they couldn’t be bothered to deal with you like this. Because you’re way too annoying to deal with in this argumentative state on a daily basis.”

“And yet,  _you’re_  the one arguing with  _me_.”

“Hey, I’m pretty sure you’re the reason this whole argument  _started_.”

“Can we  _please_  organise where everyone is going to be?” Benjamin, the other redheaded teacher, asked, sounding rather impatient. “I’m pretty sure the race will be starting soon, and I still have no idea where I’m going to be, so…”

“Can we try a fresh idea?” Kat asked, looking between Allison and James. “Maybe a new member with new ideas will be fresh for us.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Ben agreed.

“Thanks.”

James scowled at the other three teachers on his team, eyes moving from the tired expression on the faces of the Physics teachers to the defiant one on the face of the new Biology teacher. The temptation to back down was heightening, but his stubbornness wouldn’t give in. He wouldn’t  _let it_  give in.

“We’re going with my idea, and that’s final,” he said with something akin to finality, just as there was an announcement of the race starting. “Now, instead of standing here and arguing just like I know you guys want to do, I suggest we get to where we’re meant to be starting.”

Allison glared at his back as he headed off to the starting line for the race, almost tempted to insult him behind his back, but decided to stick to keeping whatever she wanted to say in her head. After all, no one needed to hear such foul language coming from a teacher.

* * *

Of course, it seemed that James didn’t exactly get that memo when they’d all finally crossed the finish line, relaxing on the crash mats at the end of the hall.

Though Allison had to admit she found it hilarious how it seemed like he was throwing a mini-tantrum. They were grown adults, for goodness’ sake. This wasn’t the way to act, even around other people your own age. He was meant to have a  _PhD_.

_Clearly his brains and maturity aren’t linked._  The brunette snorted at the thought flitted through her mind, shaking her head slightly before turning her head to look over at the winning team.

To be honest, she wasn’t exactly surprised that the English and Maths department won, considering they had taller people on their team than the others generally did. Technically unfair, but hey, she wasn’t the one who made up the rules so she couldn’t really complain about anything.

Apart from the fact that their team leader was so stubborn that he wanted to go last, and pulled their team out of second and shoved them into a solid third place.

Yeah, she could  _totally_  complain about that.

Maybe not now, when he was throwing a tantrum, but…

“I can’t believe you lost.”

The brunette looked up at her redheaded best friend, before shrugging and smiling. “Team leader wouldn’t listen to me. Not my fault.”

“You’re kidding…” The two women looked past the celebrating team to where Dr. Phillips was apparently scowling down at the ground. “Has he not learnt that his methods  _don’t_  work?”

“That’s Phillips for you,” Laura muttered as she walked past the pair, overhearing part of their conversation. As she got a few feet away, she paused, turning on her heel to face the women. “Hey, we’re going for a victory lunch at Nando’s. I mean, none of us won, but… hey, winners buy food.”

Jodie’s face split into a grin. “That sounds awesome! Allie, you in?”

Allie pursed her lips. “Well…”

To be honest, she’d really wanted to have one last go at tidying up her classroom, checking some emails, making sure that her timetable and lesson plans were completely ready for the start of the new term… plus, she felt like she really needed a shower, and going out with these guys for lunch wouldn’t really help with that. She felt like she really smelled bad…

Jodie’s eyes narrowed at her. “Nuh uh, no way. You’re not allowed to bail.”

“Who says I was gonna bail?” Allison challenged.

“That look on your face said it all,” the redhead retorted. “You’re not allowed to bail. If you do, I’m giving you a wet willy.”

“Ew, Jo, we’re adults in a  _secondary school_.”

“Pretty sure we still gave wet willies then too.”

“You can’t threaten me like that.”

The grin that slowly spread on Jodie’s face sent a jolt of fear down Allie’s spine – that was the exact same kind of grin that she gave when she was planning trouble, and right now, Allie was  _really_  hoping that she wasn’t involved in that plan.

“Who said it was a threat?”

_Well, that’s my cue_ , the brunette thought almost immediately as she jumped up and began to run, though from the sound of Laura’s laughs (at least, she hoped they were Laura’s laughs) she guessed that Jodie was literally on her tail.

_Great_.

“Leave me alone!” the brunette cried as she raced back towards the obstacles course, hoping that she could lose the redhead in there.

Her best friend’s response almost got her to double over laughing:

“ _Neverrrrrr!_ ”

* * *

Allison grimaced as she rubbed her hand over her ear again, seemingly trying to get something out, before glaring over at Jodie – i.e. the short, redheaded woman sitting smugly across the table from her.

As agreed, the teachers were going on what would probably be their last stress-free trip to Nando’s before the academic year began, with the winners paying for the meal (why that was the rule, Allie had no idea – after all, it would only convince her  _not_  to win). The teachers were spread across a few of the tables nearer to the back of the restaurant, and Allie was sat with Jodie (of course), Jake, Alex, Obed and Aleshia, Kat, Laura and George. Meals had been ordered already, and now they were all just chatting as they waited for the food to arrive.

A couple of tables over, Allie couldn’t help but watch as James scowled slightly in his seat, though every time he spoke to his brother it seemed to melt into a genuine smile.

She had to admit, it was kind of cute.

“Are you watching Phillips and Phillips again?” Jodie demanded with a frown.

“I’m sorry if it reminds me of the sweetness of my own sibling relationships,” Allie retorted, turning to huff at Jodie. Her glare turned onto Obed when he snorted.

“You threatened to push him out of a third storey window,” he pointed out with a slight grin.

“I’m glad you found the fact that I was completely and utterly furious at my brother amusing, Obed.”

“It was definitely amusing for the rest of us, I’ll tell you that.”

“Not to my mother.”

Obed’s grin simply widened as the full memory returned. “Ah yes, your mother…”

Kat leaned forward at the table and leaned closer to Allie and Obed, a cheeky grin on her face. “Okay, now  _I_  want to know the full story,” she said, “all the juice and sass included.”

“Unfortunately, you’re not going to get it anytime in the near or distant future,” Allison told the blonde simply as the waiter approached and set a plate of wings, peri-peri salted chips and coleslaw in front of her. Within moments the rest of the table had been served, and the brunette had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at the half-chicken Obed had ordered just for himself – though she was pretty sure he hadn’t missed how she muttered, “pig,” under her breath, if the glare he sent her was anything to go by.

About an hour and a half later, plates of food had been finished (and in some cases, demolished or even cleaned to the point of being so clean it almost seemed like there had been no food on it in the first place), jokes had been shared, and everything almost seemed perfect. After all, it was the last day before they all had to deal with angsty, hormonal teenagers. They all wanted to enjoy their freedom whilst they could.

Allison glanced down at her watch and sighed. It was approaching mid-afternoon already, and she wanted to do loads of things… like shower (and get all the Jodie germs out of her ear before they gave her an infection) and ensure her timetable and everything was ready for her first day of meeting students, but she doubted she’d be let off the hook this early.

Maybe if she suggested that the others do it too…

“You know, we should really get back to work…” she started, only to be met with laughs. When she frowned at the others, Jake spoke up.

“Brights lets us have the last afternoon off if we want,” he explained. “Generous of her, really; though I think it’s because she just wants to see how many of us turn up in the morning hungover.”

Allie’s brows furrowed deeply. “So we don’t have to go in at all…?” It seemed rather…  _dumb_  to her when they were so close to working for long hours for the next nine months.

Jodie could see the conflict on her best friend’s face, and she sighed. “You can go in if you want,” she suggested. “No one’s going to stop you, don’t worry.”

There seemed to be slight conflict on Allison’s face, before she pushed her seat away from the table and stood, reaching down to grab her bag. “I think I’ll head back to the school then…”

Alex crinkled his nose. “What, really?”

“I like to be prepared.”

“You don’t want to be  _over_ -prepared,” Aleshia pointed out.

“She’s panicking about tomorrow and needs some time alone with the books,” Obed said casually, leaning back on his chair. “She’ll be fine.”

Allie sent one last scowl her cousin’s way before rolling her eyes and beginning to head towards the door. “See you guys later.”

“If not later, good luck for tomorrow!” Jake called out behind her, sending her a wink whilst Alex sent her a thumbs up. She simply chuckled and waved back at them before exiting the restaurant.

The brunette shuddered slightly when she was hit by a cool breeze, smiling slightly. The cooler September air was a nice change to the hot summer that had just passed, despite her being one of summer’s biggest fans. Glancing up at the slightly cloudy sky, Allison began making her way towards the nearest bus stop when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

Or rather, some _one_.

Blinking a few times, she did a double-take when she realised it was one of the Phillips twins heading towards what seemed like a sports car of sorts. She had to crinkle her nose at that – how  _obnoxious_.

Of course, she didn’t realise she’d said it out loud – or quite how  _close_  she was standing – until he replied, “Funny, I keep telling my brother that, but he can’t seem to let it go.” She jumped when he spoke, eyes widening as he turned towards her with a slight smile.

This guy  _definitely_  wasn’t Dr Phillips. For one, he wasn’t as built as James was, even with his swimmer’s physique. No, this man was lankier, thinner, and seemed to have his hair out longer and shaggier than his brother did. Not only that, but he appeared paler, which meant that Allie could see the freckles decorating his face (and suddenly realised that James had freckles too), and kind of… was it hunched over? Like he was shying away from something.

This guy had to be Adam, she supposed, though now that she was alone with him she couldn’t quite see how Kayden found him cuter than his brother…

Of course, she didn’t realise that she was staring until he cleared his throat awkwardly and shuffled his feet from side to side, as if he wasn’t sure whether he should say something to her or just leave. He seemed to choose the former.

“Is there something on my face?” From the way his face scrunched up a little, though, Allison could kind of guess that what he’d just said wasn’t exactly natural to him. So why he’d even decided to say such a thing confused her.

“I would say your freckles, but you’d already know about those.”

Her witty response made his eyes widen and his demeanour falter slightly, and he pursed his lips. “If you’re looking for your self-proclaimed team captain to rant to him about his tactics, it ain’t me,” he pointed out, trying to sound relaxed but coming across as bored.

The brunette’s eyebrows simply rose slightly, before she sent him a small smile. “I know. I was just curious as to why Kayden thought you were the cuter one of you and your brother.”

The redhead flushed a dark red, looking down at his feet and shuffling slightly. “Have you found your answer?”

“Not quite. I’m still learning.”

He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, his blush dying down so that only his ears were tinged red. “Were you really looking for my brother out here?”

She pursed her lips slightly and shook her head. “No, I was actually about to head back to the school and do final preparations for tomorrow…”

“Final preparations?”

“Don’t you have any to do?”

He shrugged. “I’m a music teacher. We’re meant to go through the curriculum, but loads of the kids just want to make music. Just letting them do that…”

“How are you still hired?”

“Well, we do have some of the best composers, to be honest.” He quirked a small smile at her, a sliver of pride shining in his eyes. “I have nothing to worry about.”

“Right. Of course.”

The two were silent again for a little while, before Allison decided to speak up.

“Well, I really should head back to the school now,” she said, beginning to turn to head back towards the bus stop. “I have a fair bit to do…”

Adam simply nodded. “Have fun.”

“I’ll try.”


	4. First Day (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first day of the school year, and time for the teachers to get acquainted with the students that they'll be having for the next few months... as well as get used to each others' teaching habits on the job.

“First day of school, first day of school!”

A single eye opened slowly at the excited yells floating in through the bedroom door, before the person sighed heavily. It was like this every year – loud shouting, excited jumping, petty arguing – so why did she expect this year to be any different?

Maybe because she was doing it alone?

Her thoughts were shattered when she heard her bedroom door creak open, before a figure landed heavily on the bed a few moments later.

“First day of school, mama! First day of school!”

A single blue eye fluttered open to see the bright grin of her red haired, hazel eyed daughter, and the woman closed her eye with a sigh before beginning to stretch.

Being a mother of three was difficult for anyone, but even more so for Georgina Baker, who had recently got divorced and won the custody of all three of her children (without much argument, which didn’t surprise her at all). Well, if three years ago counted as recently.

But, no matter how difficult it got, Georgina wouldn’t have switched out what she had for anything in the world.

Even when what she had was an overly excited nine-year-old jumping on her bed, trying to wake her up on what would most likely be her last peaceful day of the year.

Groaning, Georgia slowly rose from her lying position, stretching as she sat up. “What time is it…?” she asked mid-yawn.

The answer of, “7 o’clock,” she received made her mouth snap shut and her eyes widen in panic. “Are your siblings up?”

“Peter told me to get out, and Amy won’t get out from the covers,” the little girl informed her mother, which forced Georgia out of her bed and out of her room, her youngest child hot on her tail.

For as long as Georgia could remember, first days of school had always been like this. From the moment Amy had been old enough to start school, even when she and her husband had been together and going through their troubles, it had been like this. In fact, for the last five years, all three children had been attending school – which made first days back all the more difficult.

Reaching the corridor, Georgia was glad to see Amy’s bedroom door slowly creak open, the dark-haired teen’s head poking out. She blinked a couple of times, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, before focusing on her mother. “Is it time to get up…?” she croaked.

“You should be in the shower!” Georgia exclaimed as she rushed over to Peter’s room, knocking hurriedly on the door. “Peter! Get up!”

Amy just sighed before shrinking back into her room.

Before walking into Peter’s room, Georgia turned sharply towards Amy’s door. “Amelia Deborah, get into that shower right now!” All Georgia heard was a huff and a grumble before walking into Peter’s room, hearing Amy’s door slam open and the bathroom door slam shut. She turned to Lily, ruffling her hair. “How about you head down to the kitchen, sweetheart – Pete and I will be right down.”

The little girl nodded before skipping over to the stairs, bounding down them excitedly.

Walking over to Peter’s bed, she wasn’t surprised to see his form completely buried under the covers. All she could do was sigh as she moved towards him and gently began to peel back the covers. “Peter…”

“Do we have to go back to school…?” the little boy whined, though the sound was mostly muffled by the covers over his head.

Georgia sat on the edge of the bed, carefully continuing to pull back the covers and revealing a mop of curly auburn hair.

No one really knew where he (or Lily) got their hair from. Both their parents had brown hair, with Georgia’s bordering on almost black, and the only child who looked remotely like their parents was Amy. It didn’t even seem like their grandparents had that colour hair. But Georgia still loved it.

“You know you have to, sweetheart…” She ran a hand through his hair. “Besides, you’re nearly done with primary school! You’re almost in secondary school now.”

“But I don’t want to do my SATs…”

“You know you’ll be more than fine with the SATs…”

Peter’s head poked out fully, revealing his green eyes (which he definitely got from his father).

“How about we talk about this over our usual first day of school breakfast, huh?” Georgia suggested, almost grinning at the smile that lit up Peter’s face.

“Pancakes and chocolate chips?”

“Just the way grandma makes them.”

That seemed to be enough to brighten the boy up, and soon enough he was out of bed and heading down to the kitchen, Georgia chuckling as she followed him down.

About an hour later, the kitchen was bustling with activity. The usual school routine had been automatically implemented – Peter and Lily helped with making breakfast and setting the table (or rather, the breakfast bar) until Amy was done in the bathroom, and then the older sister was in charge of making sure those two were ready and dressed by the time Georgia had their school bags and breakfast ready. As soon as all three of the children were down in the kitchen, Georgia got to work serving their breakfasts.

Pancakes and chocolate chips were always on the menu when it was the first day back at school – a tradition that hadn’t been broken since Georgia herself was a child. That along with numerous slices of toast, jam, butter, syrup, and three different kinds of juices were set on the table, moving between all four of them rapidly as they chatted and ate what they could. Georgia only managed to gulp down her mug of coffee and inhale a pancake before she rushed upstairs to shower and get dressed for the day of work that lay ahead.

In fact, Georgia concluded that it was significantly calmer than usual, though that may have been because it was the first day of school, and the children hadn’t quite got to the point of ripping each other’s heads from their shoulders yet. Which she was glad for, really. Three years as a technically-single mother were hard when the children were always fighting for her attention.

Descending the stairs in her usual skirt suit (ready for her first day back at work after taking a week off to spend time with her children), Georgia was almost glad to see them chatting amicably at the dining table, most likely talking about what they hoped their days would be like. Pulling out her phone, she snapped a quick photo before announcing her presence.

“How about a quick first-day photo before we go?” she suggested, almost grinning at the groans that escaped all three of her children as they rose from their stools and moved to stand in the corridor as usual, their uniforms all new and prim and proper (before they ruined them over the course of the school year). The quick first day photo turned into a photoshoot, as usual, courtesy of Amy’s posing.

Georgia didn’t hesitate to make the photo of them all posing like models as her phone background.

“Alright, into the car, the lot of you!” She merely shook her head at them as they all grabbed their bags and headed to the car, and she moved to grab a slice of toast from the plate in the middle of the table before sighing.

They were all growing up so fast.

* * *

Pillows were not the best way to wake anyone up in the morning. Connor knew that, and by default he expected other people to understand that courtesy and follow it.

Obviously, his brothers didn’t get the memo.

“First day back!” they crooned as they proceeded to wake him by beating him mercilessly with the pillows they’d probably obtained from their old rooms in the house. The boy groaned as he rolled over, trying to get away from the attack but clearly not succeeding, considering they still managed to reach him – his situation only got worse when he rolled off the bed and onto the floor.

The two leaned over and stared down at him, one brother with worry in his eyes, and the other showing the faintest signs of amusement (the slight smirk on his face was infuriating).

“Are you okay?” the worried one asked. At Connor’s grunt, the other shrugged.

“He’s fine,” he directed towards his brother, before focusing back on Connor. “Come on, you’ve got to get up now. Mum’s left for work, and you’ll make us all late if you don’t get up now – after all, you’re the one who asked us for the ride.”

“You always give me a ride whether I ask or not…” Connor grumbled. “It’s as if you working where I study isn’t enough for you – you’ve got to tow me along after you all the time just to make sure I’m ‘safe’ or whatever.”

Connor was better known to most of the other students as “Phillips the third”, or the extra member of the Phillips trio, because his name was Connor  _Phillips_. And, honestly, he wished that was the only reason, but somehow all of the students had also found out that he not only had the same (fairly common) surname as his Chemistry and Music teachers, but he was  _related_  to them. As if his school experience couldn’t have gotten any worse in Year 8, after finding out he was actually colour-blind and dyslexic, the world had decided to turn on him and ruin him in that way.

But, clearly whatever controlled the universe thought it would be funny to torture him for the rest of his school career.

“You know we’re not gonna let you take the bus and pay money when you can get a free ride every day,” James pointed out with furrowed brows. Connor could clearly see right through this, and decided to ignore his brother, instead pushing himself off the floor and dragging himself into the bathroom to get ready for the school day ahead.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Connor sighed and ran a hand through his messy bedhead. Honestly, he wasn’t looking forward to heading back to school. Out of everything, he was least looking forward to his GCSEs, which were starting properly this year and pretty much depicted whether he would be getting into the course he wanted in the local college or not – after all, it wasn’t as if his mum was going to let him to go a sixth form that was far away or anything. Not when there wasn’t really anyone around to give him a lift or anything (and his brothers didn’t count). Besides, he didn’t really think he could go far with his dyslexia anyway.

Focusing more on his appearance in the mirror, Connor couldn’t help but scrutinise his appearance. His mother always said that James and Adam were his brothers, that they were related, but they didn’t look anything alike. Whereas they had shocking red hair, his was a dull brown that could blend into any crowd. He had boring, plain brown eyes that pretty much everyone else had, whilst they had a much more interesting hazel colour that bordered on green sometimes. Either way, he didn’t look related to them at all – no matter what their mum said.

It was only the pounding on the door that snapped him out of his thoughts, right before they could delve into darker territory. “Hurry up!” James called out from the other side of the door. “We’re going to be late!”

Connor couldn’t help scoffing at that. As if that was any different from their usual first days back – James and Adam were  _always_  late, no matter what. It was why everyone got annoyed with them so often.

Nevertheless, Connor did as he was told, only hopping into the shower for five minutes before rushing out to get dressed, deciding to leave his hair damp as he headed down for breakfast. He ignored the looks the twins gave him.

“Did you even shower?” Adam asked, wrinkling his nose slightly.

Connor paused halfway through pouring his bowl of Cheerios. “I thought you wanted me to hurry up so that you wouldn’t be late?” he quipped, shutting both of them up as he scoffed down his breakfast (in under ten minutes) and grabbed his stuff for school.

Soon enough, all three males were in James’ car, heading straight for the school. Whilst Adam wasn’t a huge fan of how flashy James liked his vehicles, Connor was most definitely a fan – hey, if people were going to make fun of him for being the younger brother of two of the teachers in the school, he might as well reap the benefits of  _actually_  being their younger brother.

It took them about ten minutes (with James’ driving) to reach the school’s car park, the younger redheaded twin looking out for his usual parking space – he’d had many arguments over it over the past couple of years, and he had yet to lose it to anyone. As soon as he spotted the space, he grinned and swerved, parking in a single move.

As soon as the engine was switched off, Connor dashed out of the car – and it was only then that the twins realised he hadn’t even worn a seatbelt for the entirety of the ride.

“Is it you or me who’s gonna tell him off for it this time?” Adam asked as he took off his own seatbelt and grabbed his bag.

“Not me,” James responded, resting his hand on his door latch. “Tanner told me off last time for yelling into her classroom at him.”

Adam frowned. “Mitch?” He knew for a fact that Mitch wouldn’t tell him off publicly for something like that – Mitch’s punishments tended to be private and resulted in Jamie coming over to his place and whining endlessly.

“No, Elle.”

Adam winced. Even though she and Mitch weren’t related at all, Elle was pretty, artistic, and a million times harsher with the twins when it came to following her rules. Which included no yelling in her classroom.

In other words, she tended to hate Jamie half of the time, since he had the tendency to yell at kids in the corridors when they were being stupid.

Then again, when had Elle telling him off ever scared him?

“Good luck withstanding her yelling this time,” Adam teased as he climbed out of the car, shutting the door behind him and heading straight over to the school building.

James’ eyes widened as he watched after his brother, scrambling out of the car. “What?! Oh, come on, Adam! Don’t make me suffer like this!”

* * *

“You look nervous.”

Allison didn’t know whether to roll her eyes or scowl at Jodie as they sat in the redhead’s car, in the staff car park. Of  _course_  she was nervous. This was her first day teaching a bunch of new students, and she had no idea what it was going to be like – all she’d heard were horror stories about each of the students that she had to watch out for and the weird and wacky things that tended to happen during lessons and form time. Nothing good.

Jodie’s face softened at Allison’s lack of a witty answer and sighed, placing her hand on her best friend’s shoulder. “You  _do_  know it’ll be fine, right?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “First day is always scary for students and teachers, but it’ll be fine. Just hold your ground, and it’ll be all good.” She turned to look forwards again. “Besides, it’s not as if anything terrible is going to happen – the worst that could happen would be for some idiot in Laura’s class to set of the fire alarms on the first day… which has happened before, trust me.”

Allison quirked a smile at that. She could imagine Laura getting exasperated at some poor student burning his cooking on the first day back at school.

“Plus, you do have some nice students. They’ll give you the gist of what you need to do, and help you out as well. And you’ve got Kat and Ben down the corridor – you’ll be all good, trust me.”

The brunette still looked hesitant despite what Jodie had said, but gave her best friend a grateful smile. “Thanks, Jo.”

“Don’t worry about it. What are best friends—” Just as she spoke, the redhead spotted a familiar brunette teen walking across the car park to the staff entrance, and she narrowed her eyes. Every teacher in the school knew that teen – it was hard to miss him when he was related to two of the staff members. “Hang on a sec.”

Allison could only watch as Jodie climbed out the of the car and yelled in the teen’s direction.

“ _Phillips!_  You  _know_  you’re not allowed in that entrance!” she yelled, causing the teen to wince as he was caught. “Front entrance!”

The young man hesitated for a few moments, before turning and trudging towards the front entrance of the school to enter with the rest of the students. Jodie watched him, making sure he actually went, before ducking back into the car and shutting the door.

Allison raised an eyebrow at her. “ _Phillips_?”

Jodie shrugged. “That’s their younger brother. Not as bad as they are, but he tries to push buttons.” At the look of despair on Allison’s face, she just patted her best friend’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, he’s the year above. You don’t have to deal with him unless he’s in your Biology class.”

Allison continued to purse her lips at that, but she resigned to the fact that no amount of convincing was going to make her feel better about it being her first day working at the school. She just had to get it over and done with.

Picking up her bag, the brunette moved to open the car door and climb out. “We might as well head in now – you ready?”

Jodie scoffed as she picked up her own bag, opening her door. “Mate, I’m a million times more ready than you are.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” Allison closed the car door behind her before hiking her satchel up onto her shoulder, ensuring the strap rested comfortably. By the time she’d done that, Jodie had locked the car and pulled on her own satchel, and was walking around the car to join her.

“Let’s go, then.” The two of them headed for the staff entrance, heading into the school.

As soon as they walked in, the buzz of activity got them excited. They’d walked into the staff room, around the back of the school building, and various members of staff were either sat around, chatting and having their quick breakfasts (i.e. a slice of toast from the cafeteria), or brewing cups of coffee and attempting to down them (the downers just so happened to be the Year 7 and 8 form tutors, which made sense considering those two years were simultaneously the most active and the most disruptive year groups in the school). The two women headed for the teachers’ lockers along the back of the room, to their left, where they each signed in on the sign-in sheet and deposited the stuff they wouldn’t need throughout the day (light coats, lunch, etc.) into their allocated lockers and shut them.

“Good morning, ladies.” The two were greeted by a grinning Alex who was leaning on his own locker (and not downing coffee, which kind of surprised Allison). “You guys ready for a year full of torture?”

“The first day is always the worst day,” Jodie responded with a grin, as if they’d just shared an inside joke. Allison looked between the two with raised eyebrows, before squeezing out of the way so that they could chat. The brunette ended up joining Kayden and another woman on the couches – one that she hadn’t properly been introduced to yet.

The woman smiled at Allison. “You’re Allison, right? The new Biology teacher?”

Allison’s eyebrows rose. She hadn’t expected anyone to really remember her – at least, not anyone she hadn’t properly met yet. “Yes, I am,” she responded with a smile.

The woman held out her hand, offering it to Allison to shake. “Great! I’m Elle Tanner, down in Music and Art.” She glanced over at Kayden. “I’m guessing you already know the school’s only Drama teacher?”

“You can’t quite miss him,” Allison teased, sending a grin Kayden’s way.

The male faked offense. “I cannot  _believe_  you would say such a thing!” he gasped dramatically, the hand that wasn’t holding a cup of coffee on his chest. The two women laughed at his dramatics, before beginning to settle into a light conversation about the students (Elle had only arrived the year before, and had already managed to make herself known at the teacher most willing to yell her head off at either Phillips twin – though it was more likely to be James just because).

“Oi oi, what’s a scientist doing in our arts corner?” Mitch said with a grin, dropping down onto the couch opposite them. He ignored the rolled eyes the ladies gave him in favour of focusing on Kayden, his brows furrowing. “Are they late again?”

“Am I Adam’s time-keeper?” Kayden retorted. “Keep track of your own boyfriend, thank you very much. It’s not my job to keep track of both.”

Mitch scoffed. “That’s not what I mean…” he grumbled, before looking up as the staff room back door opened, revealing the two redheaded men. James seemed focused on signing in and getting to his locker, whereas Adam spared the small group seated at the coffee table a wave before heading off to get ready for the first school day of the academic year.

Just as they began to put their things away, Niamh walked into the room from the main school corridors, slamming the door shut to get everyone’s attention.

“Glad to see you all made it on time,” she quipped, sending a not-so-discrete look in the direction of the Phillips twins and causing everyone to snigger. Looking down at the paper in her hands, she began to read.

“Headteacher Brights sends her well-wishes and condolences to you all on this first day back, and hopes none of you have hangovers yet,” she started, getting a laugh out of a few of the staff members. “First day back, we have the usual rules but enforced to that double standard to ensure the new Year 7s follow them: no running in the corridors, no yelling, no physical violence of any kind. All children must enter through the correct entrances at all times.”

As Jamie sat down beside Mitch, Jodie sent him a look. “That includes Phillips number 3,” she pointed out, giving him a pointed look, which he only rolled his eyes at.

Niamh cleared her throat to get their attentions again. “As usual for the first day back, first lesson is purely form time, so you have your new form groups for an hour and a half instead of just half an hour. After form time, there’s the usual assembly, and then there’s break time,” she explained, ignoring the groans from around the room. “All forms and  _form tutors_  must be at assembly – anyone who skips will be punished, whether teacher or student.” She sent a pointed glare in Jake and Alex’s direction, which they only smirked at. “After break, the school day continues as normal and finishes at usual time. Do not argue, keep to schedule, and try to avoid intimidating or scaring the new students on their first day.” She held the paper down, looking amongst the small pool of staff members. “Any questions?”

A teacher near the back of the classroom, Andrew Parkson (the DT teacher), raised a hand. “By intimidating, does that mean—”

“Yes, that does include telling horror stories of Dr Phillips before they have their first class with him,” Niamh interrupted, causing Jamie to frown and the other male teachers in the room to pout.

“But I thrive on those horror stories,” he pointed out.

“ _No intimidation_. If Amanda catches you, you’re on detention duty for the rest of the school year.”

That silenced the rest of the room.

“Any more questions?” Niamh asked, and a few hands shot up. “ _Sensible_  questions that don’t include intimidating the students?” All of the hands fell.

She gave a quick nod. “Good. Amanda will see you all in assembly. Don’t be late.” And with that, the Irish brunette turned and walked briskly out of the room. Before she could completely leave, she popped her head back in. “And make sure you get your registers done on time! If I have to chase any of you up, I’m putting Habanero sauce in the coffee machine before break!”

As soon as Niamh had left, the teachers set about getting ready and heading off for their first days back, with the majority of them grabbing their bags and heading to their classes in small groups. Allie stood and slung her bag over her shoulder, all ready to head to her class (on her own, if necessary) when her arm was grabbed. She turned her head to see Kat grabbing on, a grin on her face.

“What, you were going to leave me and Ben behind?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s ‘Ben and I’.”

“Pot-ay-to, pot-ah-to.” The blonde shrugged. “Come on, there’s a huge group of us heading up with the Math and English lot, since we’re close enough – come join.” And with that, she dragged Allie in the direction of the huge group that had been just about to make their way through the school and to their classrooms.

* * *

Allison pursed her lips as she stared at the whiteboard in front of her, which faced the classroom that was (at that moment) behind her. She’d written out instructions on the board – sentences that would remind her of what she needed to tell the kids or what they needed to do. According to Jodie, they never had the exact same form groups every year, though the year groups generally stayed the same – apparently it was Mandy’s way of getting the kids to interact with people more. Of course, some people just happened to stick in the same group within their forms every year, but other than that these were people who had probably not been in a form together before.

Hence, the “get to know me” activity she’d put up on the board. Hopefully it would allow her to get to know them as well as they got to know each other.

She was startled out of her train of thought by a knock on the open door, and looked up to see Kat standing there, a smirk on her face.

“You ready? It’s nearly eight-thirty, so breakfast club should be ending soon.”

Allison put down the whiteboard pen she’d been twirling in her hands. “As I’ll ever be,” she replied, smiling back at Kat.

The blonde nodded. “Atta girl. Remember – I’m just down the corridor if you need me. Just holler.”

“Gotcha.”

“You pick up fast.”

Allison grinned, before turning towards her desk, quickly beginning to sort everything out and pulling up the register on the intranet. She’d already looked through the different students, had a look at their photos from the year before, and such, so she had an idea of what each young person would look like roughly. She wasn’t going in blind.

Which was great, because a mere moment later there was a hesitant knock on the door, and Allison looked up from her laptop to see one of her students already waiting at the door, hand nervously clutching the strap to her rucksack. The teacher stood and offered her a smile. “Hi, come in.”

The girl’s brows furrowed in apparent confusion. “Is this… is this 9B?” she asked quietly.

Allison nodded. “Yup, right place.”

The girl nodded before walking into the room and towards the desks. Her brows furrowed even more when she realised there were name tags – with students’ names already on them – at each stool. “There’s a seating plan?”

“Yeah, just for the first couple of weeks. I want to see how it goes.”

The girl appeared surprised at that, but nodded nonetheless, walking around and attempting to find her seat. She eventually sat down in the second row, in the middle, and set her bag beneath the desk before glancing at the two students who would be sat either side of her. For some reason, she didn’t appear to be that pleased.

“So… Amy, right?”

Amy looked up sharply when her name was mentioned, not knowing whether she should have expected the teacher to already know her name or not.

“You thought about Options, yet?”

The girl’s nose wrinkled at that, and it was immediately clear to Allison that the girl preferred  _not_  to think about the fact that they had to pick options right at the start of the academic year. Instead, the teen answered her question with another question.

“What happened to Miss Miller?” Amy asked, leaning forward onto the desk.

Allie, personally, hadn’t heard much about the teacher who had been there just before her – all that she knew was that she got on very well with the students, even though she’d been there for about two weeks when the main biology teacher had left. She had been a substitute, really. “Not really sure,” the teacher answered honestly. “I’m probably not the person you should be asking…”

“Yeah, but Dr. Phillips doesn’t say anything nice about any of the other teachers and is kind of a dick.”

Allison had to hold back a laugh right then. Honest and blunt? She didn’t understand why people warned her about this girl. From what she’d gathered so far, she was fantastic. “True, but I never met her, so…”

Amy made a little ‘o’ shape with her mouth, before nodding. “Fair enough.” As she said that, more students began to filter into the classroom – some of them alone, some chatting, some even calling farewell to their friends in the corridor. As Amy was the first seated, she began to get her stuff out onto the desk.

Allison moved to stand by the door, welcoming the students and explaining the reason for the seating plan briefly. There were a couple of complaints, mostly by students who claimed that other teachers hadn’t had a seating plan, and the teacher had to resist the urge to roll her eyes when Dr. Phillips was mentioned multiple times. By 5 minutes to 9, every student was seated bar one, who appeared at the door just as Allie was about to close it.

“I have arrived, no need to fear!”

Multiple students sniggered at the loud, American accent, and Allie pursed her lips. This was one who hadn’t been mentioned, and she was not pleased.

The round faced black girl sent Allison a pleasant smile, pulling her hand into a firm shake. “Hi, my name is Tamara, but you can call me Tam-Tam,” she practically cooed, before looking around the classroom. “Let me go find my seat – hopefully I’m somewhere good.”

“You’re late,” Allie stated simply, watching as the girl moved to her seat near the front of the room.

“I prefer to call it fashionably on time,” the girl corrected, earning more sniggers. Allison raised her eyebrows at that.

“You sound experienced in this.”

“Very much so.”

“So I’m guessing you wouldn’t mind me marking you down late in advance for the rest of the year and seeing how it affects your attendance mark and work experience references for the summer?” The stunned silence that followed made Allison smile. “No? Then in the room by quarter-to, please.”

“But… I needed to use the ladies’ room,” Tamara protested.

“For how long?”

“…Ten minutes…?”

Allison pursed her lips as the other kids sniggered. “Try to pee before you leave home. Funnily enough, it may have a positive impact on your education and grades.”

There was a collective hiss around the room as Tamara shrunk down a little in her seat, and Allie felt bad. She hadn’t intended to put a student down on her first day, but it seemed as if it was already going that way. What a great school year this was turning out to be already.

Pushing that thought aside, Allie clapped a couple of times to catch everyone’s attention. “Right, guys! So, for those of you who haven’t bothered to look at the board, my name is Miss Leister. For those of you who did, congrats, you’ve learnt to use a thing called  _initiative_ … though I doubt you went much further than looking at my name.” There were quiet laughs around the room as she continued. “Now, as you can tell, I’m a new teacher. That means I know none of you, except maybe by name and face. And for some of you, that might be the same with each other as well. So for our first day, before assembly, I thought we’d start with a couple of activities just to get us settled in and to get to know each other better. Sound good?”

The lack of response was a little discouraging, but Allie tried not to let it show on her face. “Come on, guys… I know you’re all in Year 9, and some of you know each other already, but the rest of you don’t, and it could be fun! Let’s give it a shot, alright?”

A little more response this time – not as encouraging as she’d hoped, but still good. Maybe she had the chance to get somewhere with these kids.


	5. First Day (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As we continue with the first day, we encounter assemblies and more first meetings with students, as well as the beginning of a rivalry between two of our science department teachers.

Jodie honestly wasn’t sure whether to be glad or disappointed that she didn’t have a class of students to look after regularly. After all, she had no real students to call her own, unless there were those who came to her lunchtime sessions for that extra bit of help, or stuck around after school to study. But at the same time, she didn’t usually have to deal with parents unless there was a subject problem, and even then, she just had to report it to form tutors. She rarely dealt with misbehaving students, and she dealt with their parents even less frequently. Heck, she generally heard all the horror stories from Jake and Oliver about how the parents could be.

Still, it was days like this where she kind of wished she had a form group. A gaggle of students to introduce herself to with a fun game at the beginning of the day, to get them used to herself and each other before leading them into that dreaded first day assembly. Sitting alone in a classroom making lesson plans and backup lesson plans was not fun.

So she decided to explore. No, she technically wasn’t allowed to, but it had become somewhat of a tradition that the teachers without form groups just attached themselves to a form for the year anyway to provide moral support. Last year, she’d latched onto Kayden’s group, and had actually become pretty close with the teacher as a result. This year, she had a feeling that Allie might need the moral support.

She realised that she thought wrong when she arrived at Allie’s class to see them not only interacting, but her sweetly shutting down that kid, Robin.

“Right now, you’re behaving like an uncultured swine by not only insulting every girl in the class with your foul language, but myself,” Allie was saying as Jodie reached the door. “Lucky for you, this is the first day, and so I’m being pretty lenient on you guys. But from tomorrow onwards, we’re not only calling your parents in, but they’re going to have a meeting with our  _female_  headteacher. Is that understood, Robin?”

Jodie had to admit, she was impressed with the calm tone Allie was using. If some kid had misbehaved like that with her or any other teacher, they’d be throwing around detentions and call threats left, right and centre.

The boy nodded quickly, before going back to chatting with the kid beside him.

Jodie had a smirk on her face as she walked up to Allie’s desk and half sat on it, earning her a look from the other teacher. “Well it looks like you’re handling this well.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be coming up with lesson plans?” Allie asked as she began to type away at her computer.

“I got bored,” Jodie responded, before looking up at the whiteboard. “What’s this activity, then? Some kind of nerd game?”

“If you’re here to make fun of me, you can leave.”

“Hey, making fun of you comes with the territory, and you know that.”

“Miss Bailey?”

Jodie swivelled around to look at the person who’d just called her name, and smiled when she realised it was Amy, sat in her seat with her hand up. “Yes, Amy?”

“How well do you know Miss Leister?”

Jodie pursed her lips at that, pretending to think about it. “I went to school with her,” she finally answered. “Why?”

“Perfect! Okay, so we’re meant to ask people in the class those ten questions on the board and make up a crossword using key words from those answers, but Miss Leister is refusing to answer the question, ‘First Kiss?’,” Amy explained. “We got her to put it up there, but we were just wondering why she was refusing to answer that question if she’s letting us ask it.”

Jodie smirked and glanced over at Allie. She knew the other teacher would hate her for this, but… “Okay, you guys really want an answer?”

There was a collective cheer around the classroom, and Allison blushed as Jodie laughed.

“Okay, so—”

Before Jodie could give a full answer, the door opened, James walking right into the classroom. He simply raised an eyebrow when he realised everyone was staring at him. “What?”

“There’s a thing called ‘knocking’, Phillips,” Jodie pointed out. “You should try it sometime.”

James rolled his eyes at her. “This is my department.”

“And this is my classroom,” Allison argued. “You knock before you enter.”

“My department, I do what I like.” His eyes glanced around the classroom, before they landed on a box on Allison’s desk. He walked straight in and picked it up.

“Hey!” Allison stood and moved to interject him

“Just borrowing them.”

“You know, there are these things called ‘manners’.”

“Oh, right.” He looked back over at the new teacher and gave her a smile she definitely knew was fake. “Thanks for the scissors.”

“I didn’t even…” Before she finished her sentence, she realised he’d walked off, heading back to his own classroom across the corridor. Her eyes narrowed at that, her lips pursing (and her cheeks puffing out in the process so that she looked more like a chipmunk than anything).

“He didn’t even shut the door…” Jodie grumbled, scowling.

Allison looked to the rest of the kids. “Does he always do that?” she asked. She wasn’t surprised at the nods and murmurs of affirmation she received in response.

Teachers were supposed to set an example. That was an opinion Allison held strongly, and she would always try to set an example wherever she taught. She was polite, kind, and tried to smile at everyone. But when other teachers didn’t do the same – worse yet, when they  _walked all over her_  – she wasn’t having that. She was going to have a word James about it. That sort of behaviour was inappropriate.

The thing was… she also knew he wouldn’t listen. He was a stubborn jackass and, as he’d said, if this was his department then he would run it to benefit himself, not other people. He had the most teaching experience, but he was by far the rudest of all the science teachers.

She just had to play this his way.

“We’ll deal with him after assembly,” Allison decided as she glanced up at the clock. As she did so, confused and excited murmurs began to spread around the classroom, most likely due to her choice of words. Not that she was going to take them back. She meant what she said, and she was prepared to go all out if need-be.

But right then, there were more pressing matters at hand.

“Right, I want everyone to put their pens down, sort their sheets into neat papers on their  _own_  desks and not those of the friend they’d decided to move closer to talk to, and line up along the front of the classroom, please,” she called out, watching as the students began to follow the instruction, chattering all the way. She rolled her eyes as she realised it was their chatter that was slowing them down. Had she been this bad at school? “Get a move on, people! Or we’re going to be late! And Miss Brights is no fan of latecomers!”

That got the students to move considerably faster, and once they were all lined up, Allison sent them a satisfied smile before leading them out into the corridor and towards the main assembly hall.

* * *

Mandy sighed as she looked through the papers on her desk one last time, her eyes scanning over the various documents. Honestly, it was only the first day back, and parents were already sending in letters advising her on how to run the school. As if she didn’t have any idea. Ridiculous.

Hearing the knock on the door, she quickly organised the papers on her desk and called out for the visitor to enter, her hands reaching out for the assembly speech script she was to read out just as the visitor popped their head through the door. Mandy looked up to see Niamh stood there, a small smile on her face.

“Three year groups have made it down to the hall already. I suggest you get a move-on.”

Mandy rolled her eyes at her. “Okay, I’ll be down in a sec.” She flicked through the three pages of typed information one last time, before putting them all together and standing from her desk. Niamh had already disappeared by then, so she quickly straightened her blouse and blazer before walking briskly out of her office and down to the main assembly hall, where she knew at least three year groups were waiting. By the time she got there, she realised that a fourth had arrived – year groups Seven to Ten were sat in their appointed rows, the students chatting away from each other. Year Eleven was just approaching from the top of the corridor, and Mandy just raised an eyebrow at the teachers as they rushed to get the students in and seated before she could tell them off. She sent a short glare at Alex as he passed with his form group, who sent her an innocent smile in return.

“You’re late, Mr Parker. Get your form seated.”

“Didn’t you just get down here, Miss Brights?”

“Do you still want your job, Mr Parker?”

There was a collective hiss from the students, and Mandy had to avoid smirking when she heard one student whisper, “First burn of the year!” Once the fourth and final Year Eleven form group entered the hall and got themselves seated, the headteacher began to make her way towards the front of the hall, through the aisle formed through the centre of the room by the seats. All of the students quietened as she reached her spot at the front of the room, turning to stand behind her lectern as she faced all of the students and placed her sheets of speech notes on the stand in front of her. Glancing up, she looked across the hall to see all of the students sat quietly, waiting for her to start. Internally, she wondered how long it would take this year for her to start shushing them from this point in the assembly and start picking out the constant talkers. She already knew a few from the past couple of years.

“Good morning, everyone,” she greeted, sending everyone a smile. “I hope you’ve all had a good summer holiday and have come back ready to continue with your studies or, in the case of you Year Sevens, start off with your secondary school life.

“Now, as some of you may have heard from our end of term speech last year, there have been changes implemented across the school. I’ll be getting to the main rule changes later into the assembly, but for now I’d like to introduce you to our new Biology teacher, Miss Leister, who has replaced Dr. Jameson.” At the gentle applause, she smiled and sent a nod in Allison’s direction, before continuing. “I would like to use this time to remind you that you are not to torture teachers because ‘Dr. Phillips says so’. If that excuse is used at any point during this year, you will have term-long detentions. I hope I have made myself clear.

“This year, as our small school continues to age, it has come to my attention that we may need to start to grow and fill up classrooms. Indeed, this year’s Year Seven group is larger than that of previous years, but with larger year groups comes a stricter no tolerance policy. Bullying and fighting is not tolerated, whether on or off the school site, and I earnestly remind you that whilst you are in this uniform, you are representing not only the school, but every single teacher and student that occupies this building from eight a.m. to six p.m. from Monday to Friday. Parents will be called and suspensions and exclusions will be administered without hesitation, and whilst you may think that fighting to defend your family honour is ‘cool’, I would like to point out that your parents will most likely not think the same thing.

“To all you Year Sevens, as well as you older students who either seem determined to bend the rules or conveniently keep forgetting them, there is no running or shouting in the corridors at any point in the school day. As agreed on at the most recent PTA meeting, this rule also applies to teachers unless there is an emergency, so please keep that in mind, Dr. Phillips and Mr. Trent, as students are perfectly in their right to report teachers to myself and Miss Burke or Mr. Ryder if they feel that this rule is being broken.” There were sniggers around the room as Mandy said this, but she continued as if she hadn’t noticed.

“All students are restricted to using the main entrances, whether given permission by a teacher to use staff entrances or not. Staff entrances are for staff only, and students seen entering these doors will be given detentions immediately. These few rules may seem harsh, but it has been requested that we crack down harder on school misbehaviours and rules following incidents of last year. This is all done for your safety, students, and I really hope you keep this in mind during your time here.

“Now,” Mandy shifted around some of her sheets before looking up at the students with a smile, “you’ll be pleased to know that this year, we’ve taken in your suggestions and have decided to test out a House System. The planning is still in early stages, and the earning of house points will not be as liberal as it is at Hogwarts, unfortunately, due to the small matter of being unable to have counters automatically assign the points whenever mentioned around the school.” There were a few sniggers, and Mandy smiled. “Nevertheless, you will still be able to earn house points from your teachers during activities in class and in form. The teachers will not be assigned houses, to avoid obvious bias,” she sent James a look, which caused the majority of the Year Nine students to start laughing, “and so will not be able to help your house specifically to win the house cup. If I hear of any bribes being handed out for points, there will be a penalty of minus one hundred points.” Mandy paused when a low level of muttering broke out around the small hall, and she waited until the students quietened before carrying on. “You will be informed by the end of the day what the different houses are and which you will be in. You will not have the opportunity to switch houses, as allocation is based on form classes, but we will be holding small competitions throughout the year to allow you to win more points for your house. More information on these competitions will be announced at later assemblies and at your parent-tutor meetings in two weeks.

“Your parent-tutor meetings are set to be 15-minute meetings to, as usual, get your parents used to your tutors for the year. Some of you will have new tutors, since we have a new teacher and the Year Sevens have just arrived, but this will be a time for your parents to ask any questions about the upcoming year, particularly with regards to options and GCSEs for older students. There will be an options evening for Year Nines later into the year, as well as GCSE information evenings for Year Tens and Elevens. There will be sign-up sheets available in your form rooms from tomorrow morning to start getting times for your parents; please try to sign up as soon as possible and  _remember_  the times you have signed up for, as we expect to see all of your parents there that evening.

“And finally, before I get to my usual oh-so-inspiring speech written for me by the usual teachers,” the students sniggered as Mandy sent an obvious glare towards Mitch and Adam, both of whom had smirks on their faces, “we would like to remind you about our pastoral care system. You obviously have your form tutors to speak to if anything is wrong, but Mr. Wright, your school counsellor, is always in his office if you need to speak to him. We’ll also have Miss Bailey and Mr. Wilson as our usual members of the pastoral care team available to talk to whenever they’re in their classrooms. We really encourage you to use these opportunities – the teachers are there to help you out wherever, whenever, whether it’s with school work or other issues, and as much as we want you to succeed, your health is just as important to us. That said, these are not to be simple gossip sessions, as teachers are still required to teach.”

Flicking through the sheets she had, she finally settled on the last one on the lectern, her expression souring for a moment before she looked up at the students with a neutral look on her face.

“Welcome, one and all, to this new, wonderful school year,” she started, in as exciting a voice as she could muster.

* * *

Allison had her lips pursed as she stared at the classroom across the corridor, watching as James moved around the room, seemingly talking to his form as they got on with some sort of exercise. They had another fifteen minutes with the kids before it was break time, and then they got on with the school day as usual. But for Allie to continue with her day as planned, she needed her set of scissors.

And James still had them.

Sighing, she spared a glance at her form to make sure they were all still getting on with their activity before getting up and heading straight across the corridor to James’ classroom, not even bothering to knock before walking in.

The redhead stopped halfway through a sentence to look over at her, his eyes wide for a moment before he narrowed them at her.

“Uh… hello…?”

She just raised an eyebrow at him, folding her arms. “You have something that is mine.”

“You should’ve knocked before coming in.”

“Manners goes both ways, Phillips. I thought a man with a doctorate like you would know something like that?”

There were a couple of sniggers from the back of the room, though a single glare from Jamie shut them up almost immediately.

“What do you want?” James snapped as he turned back to Allison, looking irritated.

Allison took this as her cue and stepped up to Jamie’s desk, picking up the scissors stand and checking on the bottom, smiling when she spotted her initials marked there in purple marker. Perfect.

“Alright, everyone,” she said loudly as she turned to face the class, “I want you to look at the pairs of scissors you have, and put your hands up if there is a purple mark on the handle.”

There were murmurs as the students looked at the scissors, searching for the purple mark she’d mentioned. Slowly, hands began to go up, until all of the hands in the class were up, and Allison sent James a triumphant smile before walking around the room and collecting the scissors from each student with their hand up. Once she’d returned them all to their holder, she moved back to the front of the room, sparing James a glance.

“I suggest you all teach your teacher some manners over the course of the year. And maybe tell him to buy his own set of scissors. I’m sure it’ll be useful in getting class activities like this done.” And with that, she turned and walked right back out of the door and over to her own classroom, ignoring the glare James was giving her as she sauntered away.

* * *

Amy sighed as she stared down at the timetable currently set on her lap. She was sat on a bench in the corner of the herb and flower garden their school had on the far side of the field – a place she enjoyed finding solace in, because of the smells and the fact that barely anyone dared to venture this far out when there was a huge risk of being late to class. She didn’t really care – she knew she was smart enough to get where she wanted in life, and she always did her homework anyway, so if she needed to catch up she could do that later.

The reason for her looking down at her timetable so intently was because of the set-up this year. As usual, it was divided across two weeks… but everything was split, in preparation for options. All of her science classes had been split into Biology, Chemistry or Physics, and lessons five on Wednesdays and Fridays were optional taster lessons if there was no P.S.H.C.E. lesson planned – basically, you could try out one of the subjects offered at G.C.S.E., such as subjects taught over at the college (Psychology, Graphic Design… those kinds of things) or some more in-depth subjects taught by the teachers in the school (Business Studies, Humanities, Food Technology, etcetera…) to see whether they would be things you would be interested in studying after options had been picked.

Amy just didn’t like the idea of having to pick her options so soon. She didn’t feel ready to practically decide on her future yet. Of course, she had an idea of what she wanted to pick, but that didn’t make things any easier. In fact, it just made it harder – she had to try that much harder to get those top marks in the end of year exams the school held to make sure students would actually be able to do the subjects they were picking for G.C.S.E. And that was just way too much pressure to put on a thirteen-year-old.

Hearing the gate to the garden open, she looked up to see her best friends walking in, smiles on their faces. Granted, she’d come to the garden to be alone and think, but she couldn’t help smiling back at the four girls that stood there, bags on their shoulders.

“Are you actually pondering over that timetable?” Allana asked as she flicked her long blonde hair over one shoulder, the group of four heading over to where Amy was sat on a bench.

Amy pursed her lips as she looked down at the sheet again. “Well, there’s actually stuff to think about…”

“Like what?” Tamara asked as she plopped down next to Amy, looking over at the sheet (though she needn’t have done so, considering their timetables were pretty much the same). “We have the same teachers, just more subjects.”

“We have Miss Leister for Biology now… and all the sciences are split up too. We can actually see what ones we prefer for next year and drop one of them.”

Jada frowned slightly at that. “No, we don’t,” she corrected. “We get to taste them separately, but that’s just so that we know what they’re like as individual subjects for next year. We have to take them all for G.C.S.E.s – we only start dropping them at A-Levels.”

Brenda pouted as she leaned over Amy’s shoulder from the back of the bench, peering down at the other’s timetable. “Oh, what? We’ve got to study Chemistry with Dr. Phillips and can’t drop it? He’s, like, a tyrant!”

“He’s not that bad…” Amy protested.

“That’s because you’re actually  _good_  at Chemistry.”

“What’s Miss Leister like?” Allana asked as she wandered around their area of the garden, picking at some lavender on one of the bushes.

Amy shrugged. “I think she’s pretty nice.”

Tamara scoffed. “She called me out in front of the whole class for being late!”

“That’s because you didn’t have a legitimate reason for being late.”

“I think she’s pretty kick-ass,” Brenda commended with a grin. “Did you see the way she got the scissors back from Dr. Phillips earlier? That was  _awesome_!”

Jada pursed her lips at that. “Not for us. It put him in a really sour mood for the rest of the time we were stuck with him. He wouldn’t stop grumbling about how she stole the scissors, even though he stole them first.  _And_  we had to rip with our hands for the rest of our cutting out, which was really unreasonable.”

“It would’ve been fine if he’d just asked first,” Amy pointed out with a frown. “I mean, he used to walk all over Dr. Jameson when she was here. Miss Miller didn’t let him, and now Miss Leister won’t. Maybe he’ll finally learn some manners and know not to walk all over other teachers just because they don’t have the same educational abilities as him.”

The other girls were quiet for a few moments, before a grin lit up Tamara’s face.

“That’s going to be  _so_  funny to watch this year.”

“I hope Miss Leister kicks his ass!” Brenda cheered.

“Brenda, no one’s fighting,” Jada pointed out.

“Oh please. They’re practically at war after today.”

“All we know is that this year is going to be a very interesting year,” Allana pointed out as she walked back over to the group, lavender in her hands being shoved into a small jar she’d procured from her bag. “And I’m looking forward to it.”

Amy grinned. “Same here. Maybe Dr. Phillips will finally be put in his place.”

Jada sighed. “Dr. Phillips isn’t that bad…”

Before any of the other girls could protest, a bell rang in the distance, alerting the girls that they had five minutes to get to their next lesson. Amy glanced down at her timetable to see what they all had next. Her face blanched.

“Guys… we have Maths with Miss Dhami…”

The five girls looked amongst each other with wide eyes, before sprinting out of the garden and towards the main school building.

* * *

Jodie sighed as she walked back into her classroom after lunch, trying not to be late as she usually was. This was her first end-of-day lesson of the year, and she didn’t want to start off on a bad note. Plus, these were Year Sevens, and whilst they were still small and innocent, they weren’t stupid. They knew how to complain and report teachers. And they already understood that the best and most interesting teachers tended to be there on time with a lesson plan sorted and a playlist ready to play in the background whilst they did their work.

Jodie already had the playlist and work prepped. It was the getting there on time that she needed to practice a whole lot more this year.

Within minutes of getting to her room and setting up for the class she had next, she spotted the small students lined up along the corridor outside her door and had to repress a laugh. They hadn’t quite got the hint that they could come in whenever they turned up.

Somehow, she felt as if Alex had something to do with them all standing in the corridor instead of walking in.

Approaching the door, she opened it and leaned on the doorframe. “Okay, which teacher told you guys you had to line up out here?” she asked, a small smile on her face showing that she wasn’t trying to be intimidating.

“Mr. Parker,” one of the smallest halfway along the line piped up.

“Snitch!” Alex called out from his classroom, causing all of the kids in the line to start laughing.

Jodie rolled her eyes, before standing aside for the children to make their way in. “Top tip: You can come into my classroom as soon as it hits five-to. Don’t tell your parents this, but I’m usually late, and leave instructions on the board. Since it’s your first day, I’ll let you all off.” She watched as the children all filed in and looked around the room, seemingly trying to decide where to sit. “I also have no seating plans, but get to know someone new by sitting next to someone you haven’t sat next to yet! I don’t believe in all that rubbish.”

One of the students put up their hand, and Jodie raised an eyebrow as she shut the door, heading to the front of the room and realising it was the hand of a girl with a mass of curls on her head. “Yes, Miss Harding?”

The little girl looked alarmed to see that Jodie already knew her name, but spoke all the same. “M-Miss Leister said seating plans are good for getting to know people.”

Jodie’s lips quirked up into half a smile. “Yeah, well, we don’t always see eye to eye.” When another hand shot up, she sighed. “We’re not here to talk about me and my seating choices. Take a seat so we can get started, kiddos. We’ve got quite a bit to get through for your first R.E. lesson, and I don’t know what those primary schools have been teaching you about religions but I can automatically tell you that they’re probably wrong.”

As the children got seated, Jodie began to hand out exercise books and textbooks for them to write in and read from respectively. “Turn to page five of the textbook, and leave it open to read after I’ve gone through stuff on the board,” she announced, as she reached the halfway point of the room. “There are questions at the bottom of the page for you to complete after the reading, but first I’d like you to answer the question on the board! Make sure you structure your work in your books: date and title of the lesson at the tops of your pages, please. And  _please_  don’t forget to write your name, year group and class name on the fronts of your books. I’ve already had kids forget today, and it’s difficult to return books when I don’t know your handwriting. Make it easier for me, kiddos!”

The rest of the lesson seemed to go smoothly in Jodie’s opinion, with pretty much all of the kids getting along with their work quietly once she’d gone through all of the learning objectives and what she intended to explain on the board, the rest of the lesson focused on reading and answering the questions in the book. She conducted her usual roam of the class to make sure all of the children were getting on with their work and ended up pausing around midway through the room, near May Harding (the little girl who’d piped up earlier on in the lesson). It wasn’t May that was concerning her – no, it was the little boy beside her.

Whereas all of the other kids had started writing the answers to the questions, most of them being on the second or third question, this boy had barely even started the first question, and was frowning down at the page as if he didn’t understand at all.

Squatting so that she could lean on the table in front of him, Jodie looked over at the little boy. “Hey there, you seem to be a little behind. Is everything alright?”

The boy looked up sharply with wide eyes, before pursing his lips and shaking his head. “N-no…”

Jodie paused, waiting to see if he would change his mind, and when he didn’t she decided to continue questioning. “You look like you’ve been stuck reading longer than the others. Are you sure you’re alright?” Glancing over at his book, she realised that he’d spelled ‘Wednesday’ wrong – she kind of understood why, since it wasn’t the easiest of days to spell, but that combined with the fact that he was taking quite a while to read set off alarm bells in her head.

She’d only seen these signs with a couple of kids before, the most prominent of whom had been Connor Phillips.

“Hey, Aaron,” she said softly, waiting until the little boy looked up at her. “If you’re still a little stuck at the end of class, I don’t mind helping you out when we’ve finished.”

“B-but what about form…?” he asked, looking extremely nervous.

“I’ll send a quick email to your form tutor to explain what’s going on, don’t worry.” From the look on his face, Jodie had a feeling that he already knew he was dyslexic and had trouble with reading. What she was wondering was why his parents hadn’t reported this yet or got him an LSA to help him out.

She made a mental note to speak to Amy and Dan later.

The boy didn’t look any less nervous, so Jodie offered him a gentle smile. “Don’t worry, there are older kids in this school who struggle as well.”

The boy blinked. “Really…?”

“Of course.” She glanced up at the clock. “How about we talk more at the end of class?” she suggested to the little boy. “We’ll have ample time to talk, just you and me. Sound good?”

He nodded with a smile, before getting back to his attempt at reading. Attempt that saddened Jodie a little, because she was sure there were ways that would make his learning easier.

Oh well, it was only the first day. She had a whole year to help out this kid – like hell she was going to let him fall behind. That was what she finally decided as she stood, announcing to the rest of the class that they had ten minutes to get their questions done.

She could already tell that this year was going to be an eventful year.


	6. Meetings and Arguments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We continue with the first few weeks by reaching the beginning of year meetings, both between the teachers themselves and with the parents of the students, and the relationship between two certain teachers does not seem to be improving.

“Alright, class, so who can solve this question on the board for me?”

Jake was stood at the front of his maths class, whiteboard marker in hand, as he looked amongst the students sat in front of him. Despite being, by far, his loudest class when he let them do what they wanted, the thirty students were eerily silent, which irritated him slightly.

“Okay, let me put it this way,” he started, beginning to pace the room slowly, “if no one answers, I’ll pick at random and some poor chump will be left to answer, most likely wrongly. And you will all have to copy down the answer and each verbally tell me how to answer the question correctly before you leave this room.”

The man knew he was being harsh, but it was well into their second week of lessons. He had to get writing their beginning of year reports soon so that their progress could be tracked over the course of the year, and considering about a quarter of these kids were in his form as well, there was that extra pressure on them to get them to perform so that he actually had something to tell their parents when he met them. Granted, he’d met most of them last year, but some of them weren’t exactly the friendliest unless their child was doing well.

Finally, a hand shot up, and Jake gave a relieved sigh. “Bailey, thank you for volunteering.” He held out the marker as the little blonde girl made her way up to the front, her hair swishing in her ponytail as she took the pen and began to write her working out for the question. Jake watched as she scribbled out her thoughts, and he had to admit, he was impressed – he knew that Bailey was an intelligent girl, but he knew for a fact that he was pushing these kids to see their academic ability right at the beginning of the year. It wasn’t widely broadcasted, but he tended to get the upper half of the students able to do Maths, whilst Jasleen got the lower half.

Once Bailey finished, she stepped away from the board, before placing the pen down at the board and walking back to her seat. Jake stood back from the board, his eyes roaming over the working out provided, before turning back to the class.

“Would anyone like to comment on Bailey’s answer?”

Again, there was silence, until a small hand slowly rose from the back corner of the room. Jake knew who it was immediately.

“Yes, Ruby?”

“She forgot to take BIDMAS into account halfway through the equation,” she explained in a quiet voice, just about loud enough that Jake could hear. “Her answer is bigger than it should be.”

Jake gave a single nod. “That’s exactly right, Ruby.” Out of the corner of his eye, however, he noticed a scowl forming on Bailey’s face, and moved to fix things before they turned sour. “A simple mistake to make, but it can easily be amended and practice can help you not to make the same mistake in the future, right Bailey?”

Bailey’s lips were pursed, but she nodded.

Before Jake could say anything else, the bell signalling the end of the lesson sounded, and the students began to pack away their books. “Right, good lesson, guys! Your homework is to complete the page of questions in your textbooks that corresponds with today’s lesson. You have one week. I’ll put it up on ‘Show My Homework’ later on today!”

As the children filed out, heading off for their lunch break, Jake turned to pack away his own supplies, intending to head out and grab something with some of the guys for lunch. It was as he was setting his laptop to sleep mode that he realised Bailey was still in the room, and his eyebrows rose.

“Miss Flint, you should be heading to lunch now.”

“I-I know,” the girl responded quickly, looking slightly nervous. “I was… um… wondering whether… wh-whether there were any extra worksheets I could do with regards to today’s work…?”

Jake’s brows furrowed. “Bailey, if you think you really messed up this lesson—”

“I don’t!” Bailey replied quickly, eyes wide. “I just… want to practice more… so it doesn’t happen again…”

Jake watched her carefully for a few moments, seemingly trying to decide whether or not she was being truthful, before finally shutting his laptop and picking up his satchel from beside his desk. “The questions in the book should be enough practice for you, Bailey – this kind of work is probably even too easy for you, which is why you keep overlooking things and making mistakes. But if you really want practice, you know there’s the links on the school website that lead to different sites for you to practice on. Go for those. But don’t use them all at once, or you’ll have nothing to practice with later on.”

The girl appeared to contemplate this, before nodding. “Thank you, Mr. Trent.”

“You’re welcome. And Bailey,” he stopped the girl as she was about to leave the room. When she turned to face him, he sent her a slight smile. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, okay? Everyone makes mistakes. No one’s perfect at Maths.”

She returned the smile with one of her own, nodding as she left the room, passing by Mr. Leister as he walked in. The much taller teacher frowned slightly as he watched the little girl head off to lunch, before turning back to Jake.

“She being hard on herself already?” he asked, pointing back at her with his thumb. At the look Jake gave him in response, Obed appeared incredulous. “We’re literally two weeks in!”

“She made one mistake, and she’s beating herself up for it already,” Jake grumbled as he slung the satchel across his shoulder. “Anyway, enough about my kids – how are yours?”

“If I see one more misspelled word from my Year Tens, I’m going to crack,” Obed grumbled sourly. “But at least I don’t have to listen to them read poetry terribly and annotate it. Aleshia constantly looks like she wants to cry.”

“It’s only the beginning of the year,” Jake responded as they reached the main corridor, turning to head towards the staff room so that they could get to the car park and head out for lunch. “They have plenty of time to get better.”

“Or worse.”

“Please don’t terrify me like that.”

* * *

 

Allison sighed as she packed up her laptop and papers for the day, sliding them and her folder into her satchel and clipping it shut. It was the end of the school day, and pretty much all of the students had left (bar the few who were up in the sports hall doing an after-school club), which meant that it was time for their first proper teachers’ meeting of the year. Allie knew the purpose of this meeting was more to see where all of the students were starting off and have some discussions about how the year was starting off before the parent-tutor meetings next Thursday, but knowing the kind of people she was going to be in a meeting with there was bound to be something more to discuss. With James alone, there was a _lot_ to discuss.

Heading down the corridor to the reception so that she could head up the stairs to the offices, Allison wasn’t surprised to meet Aleshia on the way down herself, handbag on her shoulder. She smiled at Allie as the two met at the entrance to the reception, beginning to walk together towards the stairs that led up to the offices.

“How’s your day been?” Aleshia asked casually as they passed the reception desk, the two of them smiling at the receptionist sat there as they passed and began to ascend the staircase.

Allison shrugged a little. “Not bad, I guess. I mean, today is the only day where I have all five year groups in a row, which I guess is a little tiring when I have to plan five different lessons, but the kids are entertaining.”

Aleshia let out a small laugh at that as they continued to ascend. “I bet. Did you have Katherine Wright?”

“That girl _cannot_ sit still!” Allie laughed. “And Ethan Parke comes out with the funniest things by accident – almost as if he’s still in primary school.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve had Ethan. He’s such a sweetheart, but he never gets out of the book we’re studying in class long enough to answer the comprehension questions, so he’s always behind and has to answer the questions as homework. I’m really wondering whether he can keep up with everything he’s doing in his classes…” Aleshia appeared a little concerned as they reached the top of the stairs, a small frown on her face.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Allison reassured. “If he’s not, Jodie has her room available for studying if it comes to that.” Her eyes roamed the corridor they’d ended up in as she searched for the room she was to be in

This area of the school was a lot more formal than the rest. It was basically a corridor of offices, with Mandy’s being right at the end of the corridor and Niamh and Josh’s being right next to hers, on either side of the corridor. Beside theirs were Stephan’s, and school counsellor, and David’s, the school extra-curriculars officer, and these were then followed by the subject offices, which lined the corridor up to where the two women stood. One of those doors was the one she needed – she just needed to look for it.

“The science office is the second on the left, if you’re looking for it,” Aleshia explained as she began to make her way down to the core subjects office. “I’m guessing your meeting’s going to start in the next five or so minutes, though, so you should hurry up.”

Allison couldn’t help rolling her eyes, but took Aleshia’s advice and headed for the door she was directed to, not bothering to knock before pushing the door open and walking into the room.

The office wasn’t very big at all; it had enough room for a desk with a computer, a few chairs, and a couple of shelves – very much like any old office. At that moment in time, four chairs were placed in some sort of circle in the open area of the room, nearest the door, and two of those chairs were occupied – Kat and Ben sat there, chatting about something, and both of them looked up when they heard the door open.

“Hey, Allison,” Ben greeted with a smile, sitting up more fully in his seat. The papers in his lap slid to the floor.

“Smooth,” Kat commented as the redhead leaned down to pick them up. Looking up at Allison, she grinned. “Nice of you to turn up. As usual, our dumbass, self-proclaimed leader is going to be late, so I suggest we start now before he gets in here and starts ranting at us for not starting already.” The blonde gestured to one of the seats available. “Take a seat.”

Allison’s eyebrows rose, but she shut the door anyway and sat down, pulling her files out of her own bag for the meeting.

“How’s your day been, anyway?” Ben asked as he finally organised the papers onto his lap, giving Allison a smile.

“Not bad, actually,” she responded as she pulled out the papers she needed. “A couple of loud kids here and there, one or two troublemakers, but nothing too bad.”

“We’re only two weeks in. They’re just getting used to you,” Kat quipped.

Allison shot her a look as she put her bag down on the floor beside her. “Real comforting.”

“You’re welcome.”

The trio of teachers continued to chat casually for the next five or so minutes, discussing their days and the various students they had to deal with, (double science with Year Eights was absolutely horrid, Kat concluded) until the door slammed open and James marched into the room, files in hand as he plopped down on the remaining chair.

When he realised the other three were staring at him, he raised his eyebrows at them. “What?”

“You’re late,” Allison stated simply. James rolled his eyes at her.

“You can tell the time.” Dumping his files on the floor, he took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s start. Reports from everyone on their forms, go.”

Allison frowned as Kat and Ben began to rifle through their files for their reports. “I thought this was a meeting?”

“It is,” James responded simply.

“Then why are you asking for sit-reps? Don’t you, as self-proclaimed leader, have an itinerary that we need to complete?”

His eyebrows rose as he sat back in his chair, folding his arms. “Oh, and you do?” he asked, mockingly.

Allison scowled at him. “Well, not exactly…”

“Then we do things my way.”

“Your way isn’t exactly the ideal way.”

“And your way is?”

“Well, my way doesn’t involve putting down every other member of staff simply because I have a PhD,” she responded sharply. “Nor does it involve the careless taking and using of equipment from other members of staff. And not just me,” she continued, stopping him before he could argue his case. “I know that I’ve been missing scissors multiple times since I started, and I’ve got pairs back every time, but did you know Elle is missing glue and tape supplies from her class? Or that Jodie is mysteriously missing exercise books in a specific colour from her cupboard? And I hope Mitch knows about all the coloured paper you have stored under your desk.” She leaned forward in her chair to glare at him. “You are a thief, acting as if you are entitled to anything and everything in this damn building, when you have more than enough funds to buy your own crap. And you need to _stop_ , because you’re acting like a diseased leech to the rest of this staff.”

He sat there, staring at her in shock for a few moments, before his face reddened in anger. “How dare you?!”

“How dare I?! How dare _you_?”

“You know, I would go and request your _firing_ if it wasn’t for the fact that Mandy only hired you because you’re friends.” At the shocked expression on her face, he smirked. “What, you didn’t know? Everyone on staff knows that you and Mandy go way back, and that she hired you for that reason specifically.”

Allison sat there, gaping at him, for a few moments, before she came out with her retort. “At least people know why Mandy’s keeping _me_ here – no one gets why she’s keeping around an arrogant, self-centred leech like _you_.”

“I’m still here because of my PhD.”

“We already have Kat. We don’t need you.”

“You know what,” Kat interjected, “I just found my report. I’ll just read it out now so we can discuss our next steps—”

“You think Kat’s more important than I am?” James continued as if he hadn’t heard her.

“No, I _know_ that Kat’s more important than you are,” Allison corrected with a scowl. “And if you think no one can replace you, just keep in mind that Ben can teach Chemistry just as well as you can, and there are plenty of Chemistry teachers out there who can do your job without aggravating every other member of staff in this building.”

“You know what? Why don’t you go back to your little hole in the ground, you dumbass biologist,” James suddenly snapped. “We need _real_ scientists around here, not _soft_ ones. This meeting is for people with actual degrees. And whilst you’re on your way out, you can consider all the bad reviews the kids have been giving me of your teaching. Every kid from your form in my class says they hate you. Keep that in mind, because if I’m ever asked to give you a reference for your next job, be damn sure that you’ll get a crap one.”

Allison’s lips were pursed as she glared at him, her face red, though no one could be sure whether it was from anger or embarrassment.

“Oh, so now you’re done talking? Good. Then let’s get on with the meeting.” James turned to the other two, staring at them sternly. “Reports, now.”

Kat and Ben sent each other nervous looks, before the blonde cleared her throat and began to read through her report.

* * *

 

Allison had a sour expression on her face as she left the science office, her bag slung over her shoulder and her files tucked away under her arm. Out of the four teachers, she had ensured that she was the last to leave, wasting her time organising her papers so that she didn’t have to talk to anyone on her way out of the building. Granted, she knew that Jodie would be waiting for her after her own meeting with the other non-form teachers, but she just didn’t feel like leaving and ending up in a conversation with Kat or Ben – they were nice, but she just wanted to forget what had happened.

As soon as she’d left the office and shut the door behind her, she looked up to see Mandy heading down the corridor towards her, her own papers tucked under her arms. Upon noticing the sour look on Allison’s face, her eyebrows rose.

“What’s up, Allie?”

Allison let out a sigh before shaking her head and forcing on a smile. “Nothing, really. It’s no big deal.”

“I’ve known you long enough to know that when you say that, it’s a big deal.” Mandy gave her a pointed look as the two of them began to head towards the stairs down to reception. “I’m talking to you as a friend, not as a boss. What’s up?”

Allison took a deep breath through her nose, before telling Mandy everything that was bothering her. “I’m just so tired! Like, I love the kids, really, but they can be so bothersome! Some of them are great, really, but there are just those few who act like they rule the world and don’t do a single thing they’ve been told to do! And some of them are even in my form class, and that makes them even worse! Some of them don’t even bother to understand the science I teach them.” They’d just reached the top of the staircase when she reached the pinnacle of her rant, looking absolutely furious. “And science, oh my Lord, don’t even get me _started_ on Phillips! He’s irritating, arrogant, entitled, an absolute and complete asshole who doesn’t hesitate to do something if he _knows_ it’ll irritate me! He shows _no_ respect for anyone at all! How he manages to keep his job at all _astounds_ me!”

“It’s because he’s good at it.”

Allison slowed to a stop at Mandy’s comment, appearing surprised. Of all the things she thought Mandy would say, that was definitely not one of them, though at the back of her mind she knew that the only reason why James would still be employed at the school would be because he’s good at what he does.

Seeing the look on Allison’s face, Mandy rolled her eyes but decided to elaborate. “He’s good at teaching. Of all the classes in this school, his always have the highest A*-C grades, with the highest proportions getting As or A*s. The only person who comes close is Jake, who gets a high number of As in Maths every year. The other teachers do well in their subjects, but James does fantastically, and he’s a good target for the other teachers to aim for.” Giving Allison a look, she continued, “He also gives the school a good name with his good class grade achievements. There aren’t many secondary schools out there that can say they’ve got a teacher with a doctorate on staff, let alone two. We don’t get many students, but we’re a high-achieving school. And James helps with that.”

“And it’s probably the knowledge of that which gets to his head and makes him arrogant.”

“Oh no, he was arrogant before we hired him. It was stated in his references.”

Allie snorted, which made Mandy smile.

“You really need to stop getting so hung up over everything he does, Allie,” the headteacher warned lightly. “He’s an asshole, yes, but he’s a good teacher. He just doesn’t know how to communicate with new people well, and his behaviours are tailored towards people who know him already. It’s why people like Oliver and Adam can get along with him so well. Give him time, and he’ll warm up to you and talk to you like a normal human being.”

“So you’re basically saying he’s like an engineer?”

“Considering we work with Oliver and Andrew? Yes.”

The two women laughed as they left the school and headed to the car park, where Jodie stood at her car, waiting with her arms folded.

“Come on, slow pokes! I actually want to get home at a reasonable time tonight, thanks!”

* * *

 

Oliver sighed as he walked out of his classroom and down the corridor, towards the nurse’s office. Honestly, he considered himself kind of lucky that he didn’t have any classes to teach at that moment in time – he was running low on plasters and bandages in his classroom, and there was always that one idiot (usually in Year Nine or Year Ten) who thought it would be funny to get themselves injured and realise how “not fun” it was, so he needed to stock up for the smaller in-class injuries so that Levi wasn’t overwhelmed every single week. D.T. students always happened to get into the worst messes – and it happened to be mostly in his classes and not, say, Andrew’s. Which was really frustrating, to be honest.

As he reached the science section of the corridor, he realised that the corridor itself wasn’t that empty. It took him a little longer to realise that it was the sound of voices floating up the corridor, and even longer to realise that he not only recognised those voices, but knew that they were agitated because they were in the middle of some sort of argument. Speeding up, he came to a stop right outside Allison’s door, looking into her classroom.

Allison was stood at her desk, hands folded on her chest, eyes focused intently on the person in front of her – and so were the students, all of which had put their pens down and were watching what was going on intently.

As for what was going on… well, Oliver 100% knew that it had something to do with the fact that one James Phillips was stood in her room.

Holding what looked to be her set of scissors. Again.

“Put those down. Now.”

“I need them.”

“What you _need_ is to grow a brain so that you understand you need to buy your own set.”

“Why don’t you just grow a heart and share?”

“I don’t share with thieves.”

“Oh, you’re starting on that again?”

“No, I’m continuing with it. So give back my scissors.”

“No.”

“James.”

“I need them.”

“If you value your job—”

“Are you actually threatening _my_ job?”

Oliver decided that now was as good a time as any to interrupt before it blow up into epic proportions. Though, that assumed the argument hadn’t done so already.

“James,” he called through the doorway, simply raising his eyebrow when the redhead turned to glare at him. “Take a walk.”

“I have a class to teach,” James replied shortly.

“Then go and teach it,” Oliver responded coolly. “You’re disrupting a class, and if any student had done this they’d have a detention. So put down the scissors and leave before you’re escorted out by Ryder.”

There was hissing amongst some of the students. Everyone knew who Josh Ryder was, whether they had been in trouble with him or not. He was known to be ruthless with his punishments, throwing you a week of detentions if he thought you deserved it. He also had a strict table of what misbehaviours deserved what detentions, so all students were treated the same no matter how well they behaved on a daily basis or how well they did in general. He played no favourites, and that was the scary thing.

That, and he wasn’t afraid to punish teachers for their own misbehaviours, shown by the fact that since he became in charge of punishments, Jake and Alex had been set on detention duty every day for at least a term each.

James pursed his lips, before putting the block of scissors down on Allison’s desk and turning to walk out of the room, pushing past Oliver as he did so. The fair-haired male just stood there, waiting for James’ classroom door to shut behind him, before offering Allison an apologetic smile.

“Sorry about that,” he told her, though he was directing it at the whole of the class. “If he starts up again, just yell. I’ll come running, and I can deal with him.”

Allison offered him the smallest of smiles. “Thanks,” she responded as she turned back to teaching her class. “Sorry if we disrupted you, or anything.”

“Don’t have a class at the moment. It’s fine.” Oliver then glanced towards the whispering students, and narrowed his eyes. “If any of this gets out to the other students, or to your parents, Miss Leister has a register of everyone in this class and she will pass it into Mr. Ryder. This doesn’t get out, alright? It’s not a public issue.”

One of the students raised their hands.

“Yes, Demi?”

“What if our parents… already know…?” she asked slowly, appearing guilty. Allison’s face flushed red at the question, and Oliver sighed.

“Damn,” he hissed, before turning to head to reception. Maybe there was a possibility of doing some sort of damage control before the parent tutor meetings later this week.

* * *

 

There was no chance of doing damage control before the meetings. As it was, Mandy pulled Allison and James into a meeting that day after school to lay down some ground rules about their behaviour around the other students, with emphasis on _getting along_ , though by the end of it she’d felt like a parent scolding a pair of bickering siblings. Allison had appeared more apologetic than James by far, though he’d at least had the decency to apologise to Allison for disrupting her class and had come up with a quick lie to tell all the parents at the parent-tutor meeting to save their school (and their jobs). Not that either of the women agreed with the lying. They just knew that a little lie would be necessary.

That didn’t stop Allison from appearing uncomfortable every time it was mentioned by a parent at the meetings on Thursday evening.

Most of the parents had either been understanding or had found it amusing. Tamara Blakeman’s mother had found Dr. Phillips’ behaviour downright ridiculous when her daughter explained the situation, and had been speaking loudly enough that James had gone bright red in the middle of his meeting on the next table over, and Allison could hear Jake sniggering quietly in the row behind her; whereas Brenda Thornton’s parents had been a lot more reserved with their opinion, not stating who they felt was in the wrong but clearly glaring at Dr. Phillips on their way out. A couple of parents, however, expressed their displeasure at Allison herself for allowing herself to get disrupted in front of a class full of students almost regularly, when she was 2supposed to be teaching them not only their subject, but setting an example”. As they’d all walked away, Allison had muttered some choice words under her breath at their snobbishness, but had said nothing more.

It was coming up to quarter to eight when Allison’s final parent arrived, with Amy being towed behind a woman she only slightly looked like – they shared hair, but not eyes, and Allie could probably have guessed they were related if they weren’t standing beside each other. Not that the woman dressed in the pant suit was Amy’s mother.

Perhaps the girl looked more like her father.

Allison gave the woman a pleasant smile as she stood, holding her hand out for the woman to shake. “Good evening. You must be Ms. Baker?”

The woman smiled at the teacher as they shook hands. “Yes, I am. Miss Leister, right? It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Allison gave her a nod. “Of course. Take a seat.” She gestured to the chairs for the mother and daughter to sit.

The mother took a seat, with her daughter sitting down in the middle of the three seats in front of the table. “I have to admit,” she said as she sat down, “you’re the first teacher to get it right on the first time. Not many teachers recall or know that I’m divorced.”

Allison sent Amy a small smirk before turning back to her mother. “I prefer to ask my students what their parents prefer. It’s more polite that way.”

“I like that.” The woman pursed her lips. “Last year, we had Dr. Phillips, and he made the mistake for at least three meetings before he got it right.”

“Three meetings?” Allison’s eyebrows rose. From what she knew of the calendar, there were only two parent-tutor meetings over the course of the year, and it was only Year Sevens and Year Nines who had more meetings due to changes in their curriculums.

Amy’s cheeks went pink as her mother explained, “Last year was a rough year for Amy. She was… unsettled with her dad moving away. We had to have more regular meetings with her form tutor and Mr. Wright to make sure she was doing well. As you can tell, Dr. Phillips’ incorrect use of title was difficult on her.”

Allison simply nodded as she looked between the mother and her daughter, before pulling out what looked like Amy’s progress file from the pile sat beside her on the desk and flicking to the front page. “Well, I’m guessing you’ll be pleased to hear that Amy’s actually settled in very well this year. She’s extremely bright, and from what I’ve heard from her other teachers she’s doing very well in her subjects despite only being two weeks in. I’m guessing she’s told you about the slight change in subject structure this year with regards to her science subjects?” When the mother nodded, Allison continued. “Well, she’s been doing very well in all three sciences, though Dr. Phillips and I have agreed that she’s doing extremely well in both Biology and Chemistry.”

Amy let out a snort. “Agreed?” she muttered under her breath, though it didn’t go unnoticed by her mother or her tutor, the latter of which sent her a short glare.

Ms. Baker blinked in slight confusion at the comment, though decided to ignore it (and question Amy on it later). “That’s brilliant! Amy’s always wanted to follow her grandparents into the sciences, rather than myself or her father into our respective fields.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, there are many jobs available in the sciences, and they have a tendency to search more for women in the sciences to try and balance out the genders?” Allison suggested. “It’s definitely something worth keeping in mind when it comes to picking Options subjects.”

“Oh, that reminds me! What options subjects would you recommend for Amy? Obviously, she’ll be taking the core subjects, but I have no idea what she should take, considering the system is very different from what it was when I was her age.”

Allison nodded slowly, before turning to focus on Amy. “What sorts of subjects did you have your eye on, Amy?” she asked.

Amy glanced at her mother, wondering whether the woman would answer for her, but when she realised that it was all up to her she opened her mouth to speak. “I, um… well, I take both Spanish and French, so maybe one of those. And probably History. And Triple Science, so I can do them all separately instead of going back to combined science like everyone else. And obviously the core subjects.”

Allison nodded, smiling. “Well, you’ll hear more about this at the options evening later this term, but the English Baccalaureate requires you to do the core English Language and Literature, Maths, Sciences, a Humanity and a Language. So you’re on the right track. Students tend to take nine or ten GCSEs, so maybe have a look and see what you’d like to add to that? If you’re good at the arts, then maybe one of those subjects. Otherwise, go for another humanity.”

Amy nodded, giving Allison a smile. “Thanks, Miss Leister.”

“Not a problem. Just remember to take a good look at each of the subjects and actually pick one you enjoy.” She turned back to Ms. Baker. “Any other questions?”

“None at the moment.” The mother made to stand. “Thank you so much for this meeting.”

“That’s not a problem at all,” Allison replied. “If you have any other questions with regards to your daughter’s education or absolutely anything at all, feel free to email me or give me a call. If you call reception, they’ll be able to put you through to me.”

“Thank you so much.”

Allison stood to shake the mother’s hand before she left with her daughter, and once they were both gone the teacher sat down with a sigh, beginning to pack away the students’ progress reports that sat on her desk. Glancing up at the clock, she gave a sigh.

8:15.

They’d run over by about fifteen minutes by chatting. Not that it was bad, because they were the last people she had to see, but she would have liked to leave on time. Though, by the looks of it, the other teachers had a tough time leaving on time as well – most of the teachers were still there, and a couple were still talking to parents. As she finished packing her reports into a folder, she looked up to see Kat stood there, bag on her shoulder and ready to go.

“You ready? I’m giving you a lift, since Jodie isn’t here.”

Allison’s eyebrows rose. Even if Jodie hadn’t been part of the meetings, she knew that her best friend would arrive to pick her up.

“And we need to talk a bit about your whole thing with James.”

Allison’s face soured. That explained things.

“Don’t make that face. It’s just a casual chat.”

“All the way back to my apartment, yes.”

“Would you rather walk?”

“I’d rather call Jodie for a ride.”

Kat pouted. “Come on, please? Just a chat and a ride. Nothing more. I promise.”

Allison sighed, pursing her lips for a few moments as she thought, before finally giving a nod. “Okay, give me ten minutes.”

“Perfect! I’ll be waiting by my table when I’m done – just come over when you’re ready!”

Allison watched Kat head back over to her table, before shaking her head as she continued to pack away her things.

Honestly, she didn’t see why people were so fixated on herself and James now. All they did was argue. There was nothing exciting about that, honestly.

People really needed to stop talking.


End file.
